Residents of communities in Nembe Local Government Areas of Bayelsa State have decried the loss of their livelihood following the pollution of farmlands and rivers by an oil spillage from the explosion of a wellhead belonging the Aiteo Eastern Exploration and Production Company.
The residents lamented that they had faced hardship since the spillage began three weeks ago.
The wellhead blew up on November 5 in the Santa Barbara South field in Nembe, blasting water, gas and oil in the area.
The Governor of Bayelsa State, Douye Diri, has expressed displeasure with Eastern Exploration and Production Company, the operator of the NNPC/Aiteo Joint Venture on OML 29, over the oil firm’s failure to stop the oil spill after the leak started.
Diri had said he was concerned that the high volume of crude oil being spilled continuously would spread to many more communities and undermine the economic life of residents who are predominantly farmers and fishermen, if it was not curtailed immediately.
The oil company said it was working to address the problem.
But some villagers said the situation has left them in suffering.
“The crayfish that I sell for a living, now they are all dead. We cannot get anything,” a trader, Afieyegha Seiyefa, told Reuters on Friday.
The community development chairman of Sandsand Fishing Settlement, Benson Daniel, said the smell of combustible gas in the area had forced the villagers to avoid cooking in their homes.
Daniel said, “We can’t even cook in our house because we are scared we may start a fire,” he said of the gas smell that permeates the air.”
Meanwhile, the Aiteo Eastern Exploration and Production Company said it would secure the wellhead that blew up on November 5 in the Santa Barbara South field in Nembe, Bayelsa State, in 48 hours.
The firm said its officials were closely monitoring all activities related to the affected communities in the Nembe Local Government Area of the state.
In a statement by its Group Managing Director, Victor Okoronkwo, on Friday, the firm noted that its safety, security, and HSE teams were monitoring the quality of air every six hours to ascertain the livability of the areas adjoining ground zero, while also mobilising additional relief materials for the affected communities.
The statement read in part, “Relief materials, viz. mosquito net, hygiene and sanitary kits, disinfectants, food materials, are being mobilised to the immediate communities impacted by the spill. The containment exercise continues, with booms and environmental barges mopping up spilled crude.
“All relevant personnel and experts, local and international, are now on location. The marine spread carrying the pumps, chemicals, cranes, and firefighting equipment are 100 per cent mobilised and have started sailing to location.”
The firm added that the ramps that sailed to the ground zero in the area on Wednesday were expected to boost ongoing containment exercises, with booms and environmental barges already mopping up spilled crude.
