Environmental Problems
The vast majority of
The discovery of oil in 1956 has meant that seismic lines, oil pipelines and reads, along with the influx of immigrants, have created great pressure on the Niger Delta’s exceptionally wet natural environment. The fragile environment presents a challenge to the continued development of transportation and other infrastructures.
- The main sources of this environmental danger are:
- The constant gas flaring; and
The periodic oil spillage
1. Gas flaring fact sheet
More gas is flared in
The UNDP/World Bank in 2004 estimated Nigerian flaring at close to 2.5 billion cubic feet daily (over 70 million cubic metres daily), amounting to about 70 million tonnes of carbon dioxide. Strategic Gas Plan for
Some of the effects of flaring in Nigeria
The cocktail of toxic substances which has been emitted in the flares for over 40 years, including benzene and particulates, has exposed Niger Delta communities to health risks and property damage, in violation of their human rights.
The flares affect their livelihood and expose them to an increased risk of premature deaths, child respiratory illnesses, asthma and cancer, as well as acid rain. For example, conservative assumptions using World Bank information on the adverse effect of particulates, suggests that gas flaring from just one part of the Niger Delta (Bayelsa State) would likely cause annually 49 premature deaths, 4,960 respiratory illnesses among children and 120, asthma attacks.
This exposure violates Nigerian constitutional guarantees, for example, of the fundamental rights to life (Article 33) and to dignity (Article 34). It also violates the rights guaranteed in the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, for example, of every individual to enjoy the best attainable state of physical and mental health (Article 16) and of all peoples to a general satisfactory environment favourable to their development (Article 24).
Flaring in the country “has contributed more greenhouse gas emissions than all other sources in sub-Saharan
Memorandum of the President of the International Development Association and the International Finance Corporation to the Executive Directors on an Interim Strategy Update for the Federal Republic of Nigeria,
The UNDP/World Bank figure of 70 million tonnes of carbon dioxide would have made
This ranking is obtained from the World Resources Institute’s Climate Analysis Indicators Tool, available here: http://cait.wri.org.
What’s the cost of gas flaring in Nigeria
The annual financial loss to
“[F]laring represents a significant economic loss (lost opportunity value estimated at some US$2.5 billion, based on LNG values).” Strategic Gas Plan for
At the same time, about two-thirds of the population are estimated by the World Bank to live on less than US $1 a day:
“GNP per capita, at about US$320, is below the level at independence forty years ago and below the US$370 that it gained in 1985. About 66 percent of the population now falls below the poverty line of roughly one U.S. dollar a day, compared to 43 percent in 1985.”
What do the regulations say?
Apart from human rights law, flaring has been in general prohibited under environmental regulations since
This fact sheet was produced by the Climate Justice Programme and Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria, June 2005
Contact details:
Friends of the Earth
26-
Tel: 020 7490 1555
Fax: 020 7490 0881
Email: info@foe.co.uk
Website: www.foe.co.uk
2. Oil Spillage
There are periodic incidences of oil spillage in the Niger Delta. Not only does oil spillage cause consequences similar to those caused by gas flaring, but it can also cause:-
- the instant death of the fish and wildlife population;
- the instant death of the human population by caused by explosion and fire, as a result of the spillage.
Bayelsa State Union intends to work closely with all stakeholders and the international community to alleviate, if not to eliminate this environmental disaster.