•How gas flare changed a people’s destiny
Environmental activists refer to the flow station located inside Gelegele community, in Ovia North West local government area of Edo State, as a cenotaph to Nigeria’s oil-above-human policy. The Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) says it is an ongoing “environmental genocide” and “the height of corporate irresponsibility to host communities and government’s insensitivity to the suffering of its citizens”.
It is difficult for an independent observer to disagree after visiting the pristine community located in a riverside community 45km southwest of Benin City, the Edo State capital. Gelegele is a massive oven fired by eternal flare from a flow station owned by Dubri Oil Company Limited, an indigenous oil firm, which succeeded American Phillips Oil Company.
For about five decades, residents of this sleepy town have had a flow station, its flare and the devastating effect of gas flaring as companions. Niger Delta Report gathered that DOCL treats and evacuates crude oil produced from the Ovia and Gelegele fields through the flow station in the age-long community.
The people of the Ijaw community say they have seen the facility change hands, at least once. Their leaders told our reporter that they have seen billions of naira made by the two owners over the ages, but nothing was ploughed back into their community.
DOCL, in its profile, says it is committed to “pursue the goal of no harm to people”, but the people of the community say they are harmed by the company’s operation.
Environmental activists, including Prince Chima Williams, Head of Legal Resources/Democracy Outreach, Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria, which in 2005 conducted a study into the effect of gas flaring in the Niger Delta, agreed.
He said: “The location of the Dubri Oil flow station in the middle of Gelegele community is one of the most condemnable shortsightedness of the oil companies operations in Nigeria as it represents the situation of oil companies’ facilities locations in many Niger Delta communities.
“Gas flaring, as has been scientifically proven, releases some harmful chemicals that hurt both humans and their environment. The impact includes a number of health related ailments with the consequences of impoverishing the people and shortening their life span. This is apt with the Gelegele community where like every other Niger Delta community life expectancy is below that of every other part of Nigeria.”
Prince William’s claim is affirmed by a study jointly conducted with Climate Justice Programme, which states: “Flaring of AG (Associated Gas) from oil production facilities is like setting a match to an enormous container of lighter fluid. They are so hot that nothing will grow next to them. Emissions resulting from the combustion of AG in this open, uncontrolled manner will be a mix of smoke, more precisely referred to as particulate matter.”
Investigation revealed that DOCL transports crude oil produced in the Gelegele and other facility in Ovia through a pipeline which runs through the town to the flow station, from where the associated gas is flared before it is transported by barge through River Osse to the Escravos Terminal of Chevron Nigeria Limited located some 105NM away in Escravos, Warri, Delta State for export.
The Amaokosowei of Gelegele, Alaowei Wilson Gbai Kororo, in an exclusive chat with our reporter, recalled that when Phillips Oil came in the early 1960s, his kinsmen had no idea that the company “was coming to site the hell their missionaries preached in the bible in our community. We thought they were bringing development; we didn’t know that they were coming with sickness, death and poverty,” he added.
He said while the oil company and its partner, the Federal Government, reap profit from the facility, the community bakes and its inhabitants live under severe economic, environmental and health hazards.
The 72-year-old village head was battling cough and spoke with difficulty when he met Niger Delta Report. He lives in a nondescript bungalow, surrounded by mud and thatch houses, some as old as the flare point. Outside, partly cladded children played around a surface pipeline that runs through the town.
But, he was more worried about the health situation of his town than by the abject poverty. He said life expectancy has drop drastically over the years in the community, explaining that he became youngest Amaokosuwei at about just 70 years old. The title, he explained, is for the oldest man in Gelegele, as in other Ijaw communities.
“The last man before me became Amaokosowei at just 75 years and the one before him was around 80. This is what we are feeling since they sited this living hell in Gelegelegbene. I can tell you that there is no place as hot and inhabitable as this in the whole of Nigeria.”
He said every time the fire from the nozzle of the flare point crackles, spurts and intensifies, the temperature in Gelegele rises, sometimes reaching as high as 45 degrees centigrade on sunny days. It was rainy on the day our reporter visited him, yet the temperature hovered around 33 degrees.
With the increase in temperature comes discomforts and danger in the community. Everything around the flare point is dried up by the intense heat and all the dangers inherent in living with gas flare are inherent in the community.
The Public Relations Officer of the Community, Mr Omaghomi Olu-Deremor, said the most common sickness afflicting his kinsmen are those associated with inhalation of poisonous gas.
“If you look around,” he said, “Most people have cough and cannot breathe well, even our clan head is very sick. The nights are usually the hardest because you cannot sleep. The vibration from the pipeline when there is surge is accompanied by intense heat. You see people staying awake all night because of vibration.
“Nobody in this community will pass a hearing test; the constant vibration, humming and noise from the flow station has damaged our hearing. Mark my words, several hours after you leave here, your ear will continue to echo just because of the few hours you have been here; but we live it every day of our lives.”
For the woman leader, Mrs. Caro Donyegha, the discomfort of waking up at night and extreme heat is nothing compared to the fear of losing a pregnancy. She alleged that a combination of the heat and poisonous matter the women inhale has made them lost countless pregnancies over the years.
She added: “What can you plant here? Try maize and see the result, just compare it with farms outside this area and you would appreciate our plight. The rate of miscarriage in this town is higher than in any other place. I have lived in Warri and other places, there is nowhere women lose their pregnancies as our women here. Women are finding it difficult to have children here because if they get pregnant they easily miscarry unless they quickly leave the town until the baby is strong enough.”
A gynecologist, who was contacted on the claim that gas flare in the community was responsible for miscarriages, said there was not medical report yet to buttress the claim, but noted that the report may not be out of place.
Our medical source, who asked not to be named, said, “There is yet no medical journal or report that I can cite on this, but it is well documented that smoking during pregnancy and long exposure to gas fumes and poisonous substances hurt humans. Whatever a woman inhales can be transmitted to the unborn baby and exposure over a period of time could indeed lead to premature rupture of membrane. This can lead to premature birth or even loss of the baby. The stress you spoke about (lack of stress, noise and excessive heat could also contribute to miscarriage. These are all suppositions; there is no solid proof to back it up.”
But, Donyegha was adamant: “We don’t need doctor or researchers to show us this, our experiences tell us better. We are living in hell. When we manage to give birth, our children continue from where they stopped in the womb to inhale the poison smoke from the flare. When they get sick it is usually difficult to manage. Why are we suffering from blindness, chough and other diseases?”
A report by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) also explained: “Many scientific studies have linked breathing particulate matter to a series of significant health problems, including: aggravated asthma, increases in respiratory symptoms like coughing and difficult or painful breathing, chronic bronchitis, decreased lung function, and premature death.”
Pa Moses Osia , a leader of the community who worked for the oil firm for nearly three decades, said the the facility has spurted millions of barrels of crude oil and billions of naira for Phillips Oil and its successor over the last few decades, adding that the fortunes of the inhabitants of the rustic community have not change.
“If anything,” he said, “our lives have been worse off. Our people don’t have work, the youth can’t fish or farm and the elders are suffering. The pollution in the rivers ensures that we cannot fish and the land is not good, heat kills crops. The corrosion from acid rains damage all the houses. People are not safe. All the houses are constantly vibrating because of the pressure from the pipeline.
“You see that pipe over there (pointing at a coated surface pipe) that is the pipe that carries the oil to the flow station. They take the crude from our land, pipe it to Escravos and leave us with nothing. Day and night, we face the fire.”
Donyegha was particularly unhappy with the treatment allegedly meted on them by the oil firm, Edo and Federal governments. “Every Christmas period Dubri Company would come and give us two cows – two cows for a community this big! The cow would become a source of quarrel and fighting among the various household because it is not enough for us. We would start fighting and killing one another because of two cows. That is what we get from the company every year.”
Our finding showed that a dilapidated, dysfunctional health centre is the only source of medicare in the town. At the time of our reporter’s visit, the grey bungalow was forlorn, except for an elderly guard who sat outside. The roof had leaks from several spots and many missing sheets from the windows.
The community’s PRO said, “They don’t give us drugs, the health centre they built you can go and see it, there is no doctor, we only have one nurse who comes and leaves when she likes because she has nothing to work with really. The place is dilapidated and badly in need of repairs.”
Dubri Oil Company Limited had not responded to our reporter’s electronic mail (email) request for comment at the time of this report on Tuesday, nearly week after it was sent. But a staff a staff of the company who spoke with our reporter in Benin said the company was “trying within its means.
“We have done something in terms of educational support and have renovated schools in the community,” the source said.
It was also gathered that the company planned to relocate the flow station from the beleaguered community. Work plan obtained from the company’s website stated that it intended to “construct a LPG plant, construct new pipeline and relocate the flow station” in 2014. But, checks at the site and the company’s premises revealed that it would take a miracle for that to happen in the last three months of the year.
Olu-Deremon confirmed that the community earlier discussed with DOCL on the possibility of relocating the flow station.
“They said they would not relocate the community but would instead relocate the flare. But, all that started and ended with grammar; a lot of talks and no action.”
The spokesperson of the Ijaw Youth Council, Mr Eric Omare, said the prevailing situation highlighted all that is wrong with the oil and gas industry in the country. He said oil firms are willing to pay compensation for gas flaring because it is cheaper in the short run than investing on gas-to-liquid conversion projects. Conversely, he said the government pockets in the money instead of using it for the communities bearing the brunt of the pollution.
“The case of Gelegele is a classical demonstration of the suffering of the oil-bearing communities of the Niger-Delta region who bear the brunt of the adverse effects of oil and gas production without corresponding benefits. The overwhelming poverty of the people bears testimony to this fact.”
Omare, a lawyer, said the IYC recently resolved at Ofunama, Edo State that the flare site should be relocated from Gelegele to an acceptable area, adding: “Alternatively, Gelegele should be relocated to a new location within their lands with a new city built for them. However, in both cases, the people and Gelegelecommunity should be adequately compensated.
“This position has been communicated to President Goodluck Jonathan through the office of the Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta Affairs, Hon. Kingsley Kuku.
“However, no action has been taken so far. Therefore, the IYC’s next line of action would be to take drastic and revolutionary step to seek justice for the oppressed people of Gelegele who are suffering what could best be described as ‘environmental genocide’.”
ERA/FOE’s Prince William also said: “If the impacts are to be mitigated or stopped, the first thing is to relocate the flow station out of the community to a distant place where the impact on the people will be reduced. After that, a comprehensive health and environmental audit conducted to ascertain the level of damage already done. Lastly, it will be to put restitutionary and remediative measures in place to assuage the impacts on the people and the environment.”
As the debate continues, Osia urged government and the various agencies to act quickly before disaster occurs in the community.
“We live in constant fear; we have been told that if there is the smallest hole in any of these pipes and there is an explosion, it will level this community and everybody will die. That is the constant danger we face.”
