Ogoniland Clean-up Project commences as UNEP team arrives

A team of United Nations Environment Programmes (UNEP) arrives Nigeria today (Sunday) to commence the preliminary works on the cleaning and remediation of the oil spill-impacted site in the Ogoniland over the years.

The arrival of the UNEP technical team is sequel to a bilateral meeting held with the Executive Director of UNEP, Mr Achim Steinner and members of the top management of UNEP in Nairobi by the Minister of Environment, John Odey.

According to the UNEP Executive Director, the visiting team is being led by the UNEP African Regional Office Director, Mr Mounkaila Goumandakoye who was also at the meeting with the Minister of Environment in Nairobi.

The Minister told the UNEP management team “the project (Clean-Up Ogoni project) is very dear to the people and the Federal Government is ready to give you all the support to get the project through.”

He further advised UNEP to make the people of the area identify with the project in every area of its implementation.

“The project should be community-based so that the people can be involved. The people are lokking forward to it. They believe in UNEP more than Shell. So the need for UNEP to take pro-active action is very important.

“We will look into the issues of logistic and security. Security is a top priority in everything not only in Ogoniland.”

The Minister assured the UNEP team that President Umaru Musa Yar Adua will fully support the organization to make the project a success.

The UNEP Exeuctive Director had told the Minister and members of the Nigerian delegation to the meeting that UNEP was very optimistic and excited to get the project through.

“We are going to Nigeria with a team of Engineers and we are going to consult and discuss issues of the programme implementation and financial issues involved so that this time the project is effective.

“We are ready to move UNEP to the area and we would appreciate the support of the President and the Minister.

“We are going to consult with the community leaders to ensure that everybody knows what we are doing and they will be welcome to be part of the programme.”

The Clean-Up Ogoni project is a project that will be financed by the UN in order to remediate years of environmental degradation caused by oil exploration in Ogoniland.

To pave way for smooth operations of the UNEP on the project, the Federal Government had constituted a Presidential Committee to oversee the progress of implementation as a means of resolving the Environmental and Social Conflict of the area.

The Committee is headed by Reverend Father Mathew Kukah with the Chair of the Ogoni Council of Chiefs, Minister of Environment, National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA), Representative of Rivers State Government, UNEP and United Nations Development Program (UNDP) as members of the Committee.