Govt aware but yet to make conclusion — Rivers Commissioner for HealthHigh level of pneumoconiosis, chemical-pneumonities, inflammation of lungs —Nubari  

Head, Rural Health and Community Development, Centre for Environment Human Right and Development, Dr. Naabie Francis Nubari, a Bodo native, who had carried out free treatments in the area, said: “We had two oil spill incidents that were not attended to in 2008.

When the spills happened then, I was with Dr Zabbey, Coordinator, Centre for Environment Human Rights and Development, who then was in charge of conservation programmes. His first point of emphasis was around the mangrove area, the shore, the coastal areas, and the destruction around the area.

“He had a robust background in the area of aquatic life. Because he did his research as a hydrobiologist studying the benthic and aquatic lives, during the legal battles, his documentations were what led to victory because he has a base line survey of what life was there before the spills. “In 2010 when the issue of spills climaxed, I was the doctor in charge of Okwale Model Health Center, Khana local government area. I had been in touch with the local population of Ogoni, especially those from Bodo.

People from Bodo would come to Okwale first because they knew I am a doctor and they had confidence in me. Poor response to conventional antibiotics  “As we progressed into consultations and checkups, I began to review their presentations with what were established known side effects from prolonged exposure to petroleum products. Most of these hydrocarbons are volatile carbonated substances and, medically speaking, they affect virtually every system in the body, from the brain to the bone, the blood, the skin, the lungs, the genitals, among others.

“In one of my papers, ‘The Untold Health Effect of the Bodo Oil Spill’, I took time to make a systematic breakdown of what is my personal observation as a clinician in Bodo and I reconciled that with presentations that are common in the community. “Once there is a spill, these volatile organic compounds are dislodged into the air and somebody can inhale it because of constant exposure. With continuous exposure, it accumulates in the lungs. Then it becomes chronic. In other words, when you take the usual cough medicine, it will not respond.

If you do a chest x-ray in such instance, you will notice that the chest picture will have an area covered by a collection called pneumoconiosis, accumulation of fumes or ducts in the lungs. “Most times,  these people complain of vomiting and coughing of blood. But when you test them for tuberculosis, they will show negative. You treat them with cough drugs,    they will not respond to the conventional antibiotics because their lungs have been irritated and inflamed with chemical substances called  chemical pneumonities and pneumoconiosis.

All these were identified there.” According to him, many children were tested and identified with pnuemonities, the inflammation of the lungs with chemical infection and bacterial infection in Bodo. “There is a high level of pneumoconiosis and chemical-pneumonities. Many of the villagers had prolonged cough that was not responding to treatment,” he clarified. “One other of the commonest presentations there is the problem of skin manifestation, skin irritation and rashes. Till now, people there still have undefined skin itching and rashes and I have done several free treatments there.

People age faster

“We want to go and conduct HIV screening in the place because a common presentation of HIV is rashes. We are emphasizing on HIV because in HIV, there is something we call generalized dermatitis, where you have skin changes and we have identified skin changes to be common within the period of these spills.

“ One thing I have observed again is that the people age faster. If you go there and see a young person, ask the person his or her age, you will see that he looks older than his age.”

Sterille men and women

Nubari also linked growing infertility in Bodo to oil pollution. “This is why oil companies give their workers protective clothes, but the people of Ogoni are directly exposed to the hazards,”he said. “Infertility is so much among the people within the reproductive age in the area.

I have identified that there is high incidence of male infertility in Bodo. Infertility is actually the inability of a couple to reproduce within one year of constant sex. The male infertility has been on the rise since these things came to be. It is reducing their fertility profile.”

Govt to establish special unit to monitor birth anomalies 

In dealing with the multifaceted situation, Rivers State Commissioner for Health, Odagme said:    “As a ministry, I cannot say that we have any documented information presently. We do not also have a desk that articulates these anomalies in children; we will create that, so that our ministry will get that going forward.”

“The Ministry of Health, Rivers State and, by extension, the state government, is not aware of growth distortions in Bodo and other Ogoni communities as a result of    oil spillage because we do not have any established reports and records. “Because of the oil spillages, especially in Bodo and other neighbouring communities, you see that aquatic life there has been damaged.

Hydrocarbons have various effects, it is gene toxic, they can cause cancer and they can damage the nerves. I do not have reports, but books have been published establishing these issues, but the ministry does not have any.” Following Sunday Vanguard’s inquiry, he said: “If you give us time, we are going to establish the facts, not through sporadic findings.”

‘I don’t know ongoing water projects in Bodo’

On what the state government has done to provide potable water for the people since UNEP had declared that water from the community’s river was unfit for human consumption, the commissioner said his ministry was not in charge of water projects in the state and called his Water Resources counterpart, who promised to send him details.

He, however, said:    “I know that there are some water projects going on in the state at the moment, but I cannot say for sure the one that is going on in Bodo. Oil spillage affects the surface soil. When it sips down, it affects even the underground water. Even the air there is not very good. It is completely different from those in other places.

“There are obviously health implications based on the water they drink, the food and the air, but I need to lay my hands on a report. We will also do a study on the issue of women attaining menopause earlier than it should be.

Bodo hospital in tatters

Sunday Vanguard visited the General Hospital in Bodo. What we saw was an eyesore. Some of the outpatients, who spoke to our reporter, said they had no option than to patronize the hospital because they had no alternative.

A medical officer, who preferred anonymity, said: “There have been cases of abnormal births and stunted growth, but it is not the kind of information we can release to the media. Moreover, there is no study yet to prove that the anomalies are because of contaminated water and fish from Bodo river.”

My people experiencing distorted growth- HRH King Berebon 

The traditional ruler of Bodo, His Royal Highness, King John Bari-Iyiedum Sunday Berebon , who spoke to Sunday Vanguard in his palace, said:   “In 2008 and 2009,    then my late father, His Royal High, Felix Sunday Berebon, was alive. A spill that led to a lot of disasters in the area made us to sue Shell to court and they requested that we settle out of court.

“It is true that the contamination is affecting my people. It affected our ecology and environment. Even our health is not spared. Infant mortality is high. The people are having distorted growth because of the benzene, a dangerous chemical used by the oil firm. International experts have confirmed and it is there in the UNEP report.

We have reported our plight to the state and federal authorities and to Amnesty International. Government is doing its best. “It is a disaster that naturally occurs, though this one is caused by negligence.

There is nothing we can do than to call in the federal government and the World Health Organization to assist us, give us aid and some support that will make us survive. We are down and suffering from this devastation.”

We‘ve not heard of these diseases before- Chief Kiebel 

Chairman, Bodo Council of Chiefs, Chief Livinus Kiebel, who also spoke to Sunday Vanguard, on the oil pollution issue, said:    “I am aware of the problem because the two oil spills that happened in August and October 2008 in our community was of the highest magnitude.

Founder and Co-Trustee of Universal Education Care for Empowerment Foundation and Empowerment Clinic, Bodo, Rev. Moses Lezor, echoed the position of Kiebel when he stated:    “What is happening in Bodo is not far-fetched. If you look at the water in basins and grasses after rainfall, you will see the evidence.

The grasses are no more green. All these things are happening as a result of the oil spillage.” “There are changes in our community and the changes are not natural; it is as result of oil spillage. On the health implications, you will see that the age of menopause is gradually reducing and children are becoming epileptic. Parents are complaining that they no more make catches when they go fishing. This leads to poverty”.

Distortion in growth is real – Gokana LG Chair

Contacted, Chair, Caretaker Transition Committee, CTC, Gokana local government, Hon. Monday Dumiye, said he was aware of the distortions in growth as a result of intake of contaminated things in the area.

“The state government is doing its best to address some of the issues. I know that there is an ongoing water project at Erabo to address the issue of water. He said:    “It is a very terrible environment now. If you go to Bodo, I happen to come from a community that houses over 50 oil wells, that is, K-Dere.

If you look at the situation there, it is so pathetic because the water there is so contaminated with benzene.” “You cannot drink it, there is no source of livelihood. The people there are predominantly farmers and fishermen and the water is polluted with hydrocarbon, which is crude oil to be specific.

“The fish we have in the water, there is this report that it is prone to give cancer to the people, so nobody wants to go to fishing again because of the situation. K-Dere to be specific has manifold and flow stations where there is consistent gas flaring. And that thing is affecting the growth of the villagers.”

It’s not a hidden affair – Dumnamene, activist 

Project Officer, Energy and Climate in Social Action, Mr. Fyneface Dumnamene, who spoke to Sunday, Vanguard in Port Harcourt, also claimed to be aware of distortions in human growth in the area. “I have also visited the areas and noticed that people still bathe in that river,” he said.

“I was also there at a time when the current Senate President came when he was the Chairman, Downstream in the Senate,    we went to the river and met a woman who soaked cassava and when she brought it out and squeezed it, oil was coming out and that is what she was taking home to eat.

Average of 25 burials weekly in Bodo

“If you watch in the community, you see posters of young people who have died. Prof Ben Nani attending one of our programmes, last year, at Golden Tulip Hotels, Port Harcourt, said that average of 25 burials take place in Bodo, which has the biggest mortuary in the area, weekly.

The people are mostly not taken to mortuary but buried instantly. Bodo has 32 sub-communities, it is a large place.”
Independent health audit

He called for an independent health audit of people at oil impacted areas even if the communities are picked at random, saying: “HYPREP claimed that they are in partnership with John Hopkins Hospital in USA to do the health audit of the people. So we wrote to them trying to find out how far they had gone with the partnership because we had not seen anything on ground.

Hopkins did not respond to the letter. We did same to the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital. Apart from stunted growth, there is also the case of young ladies, who are not up to 25 years but they have stopped seeing their menstruation, menopause setting in earlier. There are also cases of women above 45 years and they are no longer seeing their period.

“We have a lot of medical changes and difference within the population of Ogoni because the water they drink and the food are polluted. But, if you ask women in the market, they will tell you that they should leave the clean up and bring the money because the fishes are now coming and they can now eat but when you eat the fish and belch,    you perceive oil.    They are actually dying.

“It is just that in the academic setting, we need proof, otherwise the people there are dying. We are requesting that health facilities should be established in the area so that the health audit of the people would be carried out. It will help the situation.”

‘People vanish without proper documentation’

Coordinator, Women Development and Resource Centre, Centre for Environment Human Rights and Development and a member of Centre for Environment Media and Development Communication, Constance Meju, who had held series of engagements with women in Bodo and other Ogoni communities, said: “There has been systemic deaths just that nobody is taking note of them, but you find out that people are dying because they have been living with toxic waste for a long time.

“Last year, I conducted a research for an organization, West African Network for Peace, WANEP, on issues around the Niger Delta. While I was talking to women in that area during focused group discussions, the major complaint was the issue of health because of oil pollution”.

“The deformities in babies can be linked to the pollution in the area. I call on the federal government to stop seeing the Niger Delta people as oil producing territory alone but as a place where people live. If they see the people as citizens of the country, they will begin to give them due attention. “We are calling for eco-democracy; they should know that the earth is for us to use and hand over to our children and not for us to plunder.”

Pollutants in the environment – Dr. Zabbey

The coordinator, Centre for Environmental, Human Rights and Development, CEHRD, Dr. Nenibarini Zabbey said: “When oil spills, so many things happen, but the contaminants that persist will go into the food chain.” Zabbey went on: “When they get into the food chain,    there will be biomagnifications. When the food chain increases,    the concentration of the toxicants will also increase so that the organisms that are on top of the food chain will have more of the contaminants in them.

“The contaminant is already in the environment and every biological constituent in the environment is in touch with the contaminant. The organisms at the lower level will take in the contaminants, so also the organisms on top will take in the contaminants, maybe through skin contact, drinking of water or feeding. The organisms on top feed on organisms below, and the ones below take in some of the toxicants.  It, therefore, means that the organisms on top will take in more of the contaminants.

“Human beings are in the category of the top feeders, they are right there on top of the food chain. They are there in the environment having contact with the oil through multiple ways and eating food items from the environment that have been contaminated by the same contaminants.

“There is the tendency that the concentration in human in that area will be high above the World Health Organization’s permissible limit. Such level of crude oil concentration in human being could be deleterious. It may affect the health of the person depending on the physiological state, immunological state and the level of uptake of the person through food source and drinking water.

“Unfortunately, there has not been any empirical survey that actually demonstrates some of these things. But scientifically, if such survey is conducted, there will be pattern or profile of high impact, starting from where people are more in contact with the oil and, then, the level of impact will decrease toward the interior where people are not in contact with oil.”

The UNEP report, according to him, noted that the people of Ogoni have been exposed to oil all their lives and given the life expectancy of a Nigerian, that there should be a health registry and people monitored for cancer manifestations and abnormal health conditions. “The UNEP report also emphasized the fact that those that have been consuming water from the river polluted with hydrocarbon should be placed on a cohort register and be monitored closely.

But it is unfortunate, the UNEP report is five years old and the recommendations contained in that report are divided into two categories, emergency and reluctant measures,”he stated. “The emergency measures have to do with the immediate actions that government needs to take to save the population of Ogoni. It is basically about health, water, sensitizing about contaminated environments, not to fish in contaminated water, drink from it and all that.

“These are actions that do not require much money and government has not taken it seriously. This is unfortunate and up till now, it is unattended to up till now. During the last administration, HYPREP erected some sign posts in some contaminated sites, but I think mounting sign posts did not send the message, especially in an area that the level of illiteracy is high.

They should have followed it up with campaigns, I am not aware of the health registry going on anywhere. “It is fundamentally necessary for government to commence health registry as recommended in the UNEP report and the time to do it is now.”

People dying every day of strange diseases- Mitee

Lawyer, environmentalist and social activist, Ledum Mitee, who hails from Ogoni land, told Sunday Vanguard: “Almost all the communities in Ogoniland are heavily impacted. I am not a medical person, but you can see the evidence of stunted growth and all manner of illnesses in our people, things that were not there before.

“The anomalies should be addressed quickly; we raised the matter several years ago. If you look at the UNEP report, it is not different from the issues we have raised about Ogoniland several years ago even though they went to take sample from a community far from the impacted communities.

“This is because they did not want to link the spillage to the health problems of the people, but each day, people are dying of strange diseases; unfortunately, government is not showing concern.”

FG addressing problem with clean up – Senator Abe

All Progressives Congress, APC, chieftain in the state, who is also from Ogoni land, Senator Magnus Abe, said the problem of oil pollution in the area was being addressed. Abe’s words: “The fact is already well documented in the UNEP report, which is why it recommended a health assessment of the people of Ogoni to ascertain the health hazards.

“What is clear is that the area had been devastated and the health of the people should be addressed, but we hope that the clean-up that the Federal Government has just flagged-off is a first step towards addressing the problem,.”

Vanguard……

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