Community Laments Effect of Spill from Agip Facility
Blessing Ibunge in Port Harcourt
About a month after an oil spill occurred at Lasukugbene, a community in Southern Ijaw area of Bayelsa State following the burst of pipelines belonging to Agip, residents of the area have lamented the effects of the incident.
THISDAY gathered that up till the time of filing of this report, no Joint Investigation Visit (JIV) has been officially carried out by the relevant authorities, after the occurrence of the spill on February 3, 2022.
Lasukugbene community plays host to manifold pipelines and oil wells belonging to Agip Oil Company which has been operating in the community since 1974.
The predominately fishing community, that has no hospital or health care facilities, relies mostly on local herbs for treatment of their ailments. The people of the community are now in sorrow following the alleged damage on their only source of livelihood-fishing and farming.
Recently, when Heath of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF) team in collaboration with Environmental Rights Action (ERA) visited the community to ascertain the level of damage done to the community and figure out what must be done, the people lamented that the oil spill has destroyed their rivers and lands.
The river, which is their only source of potable water and for their crops, has been contaminated by the oil spill. Some community members described their ordeal and expressed sadness over Agip’s negligence and government’s failure to regulate better and to bring succour to them.
The community Secretary, Mr. Valiant Jackson, revealed that the spill had occurred over a month earlier before that of February.
He said: “Yesterday, Agip sent its team to clamp the erupted pipeline without informing the community leadership or contacting anyone from the community. When we saw and approached them to find out what they were doing, Agip accepted that the spill was actually caused by equipment failure.
“They said that they were doing their best to ensure that the spill was contained.
“Since the operation of Agip in the community, the only thing Agip has provided for the community is a water tank that isn’t working.
“We have no hospital, except for a small healthcare facility built by the local government authorities. The equipment in the health centre was bought by the community, and the only staff in the health centre comes to work only once, usually during statewide immunisation exercise.”
Another community woman, Josephine Tarilla, stated: “We are suffering. There are no standard healthcare facilities, no water, school or electric power in the community. We can no longer fish in our rivers, as the oil spill has destroyed all our fishing tools and nets.
“We call on Agip and the government to come to our aid. We are suffering as a result of the oil spill from the Agip pipeline which passes through our community. We need help and relief materials to reduce our sufferings.”
Cadmus Atake-Enade, project lead, Fossil Politics of HOMEF, stated that: “The spill blanketed the community’s river and swamps. It was an absolutely disheartening and scary sight. I wonder if there is hope for the common Niger Delta man.
“Communities in this region are suffering daily; there should be an immediate health and environmental audit of this place and the clean-up process should begin. It would be recalled that in February 2021, a similar spill occurred in Ogboibide community in Southern Ijaw where an Agip pipeline at OML63 had a gas leak and the company could only clamp the leakage site after wasting much time.”
