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afrol News, 15 April - After a decade of complaints by locals in the Niger Delta, a government committee visiting the area has promised it would look into the problem of waste disposal and pollution by oil companies into delta waters. An investigate panel is to be set up, the committee promised. The Ubeji community in the Warri area of the Nigerian Delta State claims to have been viciously affected by more than a decade of oil production in their fragile mangrove habitat. Waste disposal and pollution by the Warri Refining and Petrochemicals Company (WRPC) have spoiled fishing and reportedly has caused a number of poisoning deaths among the Itsekiri people (related to the Yoruba) inhabiting these marginal areas between water and earth. The structurally poor area has not received significant revenues from the large recourses taken off the Itsekiri's ancestral lands. Their pleads for environmental care were ignored for years. In the days of the military dictatorship, environmental protests by the Delta's local population were met with police and military brutality. Since that, WRPC and other oil companies have been objected to follow environmental management plans and pollution limits. Despite these restrictions, the Ubeji community however still holds that the pollution problem remains unsolved, expressing concern over the degradation of its natural environment and impacts on the local economy and human health. They claim WRPC doesn't stick to its own environmental management plan. Onwuka Nzeshi, a journalist in the Lagos-based newspaper 'This Day', this weekend reported from Warri that the federal Senate Committee on Niger Delta had come on a visit to the area, listening to complaints from Ubeji. The Chairman of the committee, Senator Victor Oyofo, on his visit disclosed that the Senate was to set up a probe panel to investigate the activities WRPC, with special reference to its environmental record. Senator Oyofo was quoted by 'This Day' saying he thought it was "irresponsible of the WRPC to continue to leave this pollution. If nothing is done, it means they will continue to pollute the place as long as there is a refinery here. I will put up a motion at the Senate so that we can set up an enquiry as to why this has been going on." Locals hold the company refuses to address the problem of environmental pollution and degradation in Ubeji community not because WRPC lacks the funds, but because the management is anti-Itsekiri. While other companies ensured that a majority of their labour force was drawn from the host communities to ensure that some of the benefits went back to the community in which they are located, WRPC was said to avoid employing local Itsekiri. The Ubeji community already in 1999 had appealed to the government to intervene in its conflict with WRPC. Local associations contacted the Federal Ministry of Environment, which thus started some small-scale investigations. The promises of Senator Oyofo are however on a different scale, indicating the government this time is serious. Meanwhile, the Delta population is slipping further into marginalisation. Without access to modern-sector employment, harvesting the delta's natural resources remains the basis of livelihood and River Niger's delta water is the main source of drinking water. Continuing pollution further depletes fish stocks and poisons the people drinking the water. The Itsekiri have reported of tens of "mysterious" deaths they relate to polluted water over the last decade, which still have not been investigated by the government. The Warri Refinery along with the nearby Port Harcourt refineries are the largest oil refineries in Nigeria. Built in 1978, the Warri Refinery has a processing capacity of 125,000 barrels per day of crude oil. Its original process plant is believed to be defective, the result being frequent shutdowns, high running costs and constant oil spills into the delta. Sources: Based on 'This Day'
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