Restiveness, Poor Contract Execution Stall Clean-up of Rivers Community

The Bodo Mediation Initiative (BMI) has alleged that the cleanup of the Bodo community in Rivers State was stalled by the community, which shut down the clean-up process, as well as the poor performance of the project contractor, Mr. Kay Holtzman.

BMI said in a statement at the weekend that the body was established under the auspices of a former Dutch Ambassador who, until 2015 co-chaired the mediation process to deliver the clean-up of Bodo.

According to the statement, which was signed by BMI’s Chairperson, Inemo Samiama, the mediation is between Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) and the Bodo community with representatives from United Nations Environment Programme ( UNEP), National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA), Rivers State Government, the Dutch Embassy and a coalition of NGOs in the Niger Delta - National Coalition on Gas Flaring and Oil Spill in the Niger Delta (NACGOND).

The statement added that BMI strives for clean-up of the Bodo community to international standards and the purpose of the Shoreline Clean-up Assessment Technique (SCAT) under the BMI was to form judgments on the best remedial methods applicable to each grid at individual sites.

“A preliminary SCAT (Pre-SCAT) mission (which is basically a reconnaissance visit to have a visual assessment of the impacted area) was car- ried out from 4th to 15th May 2015. The main SCAT mission (which included taking sediment samples from the impacted area for laboratory analysis of the hydrocarbon compound) was carried out from 3rd August to 25th August 2015. It is important to note that the area covered by the SCAT included areas impacted by the 2007/2008 spills caused by equipment failure as well as areas impacted by artisanal refining activities,” BMI explained.

BMI further revealed that the results of the pre-SCAT and main SCAT were issued by the SCAT team leader, Dr. Erich Gundlach, in June 2015 for the pre-SCAT and in September 2015 for the main SCAT.

According to the statement, the SCAT results confirmed areas of pollution and the need for clean-up.

“These results did not raise new concerns because they were not different from existing observations from earlier reports. At a meeting held on 18th July 2016 with members of the Bodo Community, the BMI chair discussed the observations in the SCAT report and emphasized that the only possible way to mitigate against continued exposure to the negative consequences of the polluted environment was to immediately commence the clean- up and remediation exercise,” BMI added.

It added that the SCAT results were worrisome but not surprising, as they confirmed that the degree of oil contamination in the Bodo Creek was high.

“This, however, did not warrant immediate emergency measures - the extent of the pollution was known, people were already aware they had to stay out of polluted areas - but rather emphasized the need for clean-up. SCAT is a cradle to grave process. It was to continue throughout the duration of the project to monitor and evaluate progress. Sadly, the clean-up process was shut down by Bodo community members two weeks after the report was released, because these community members wanted to receive money rather than have their Bodo community cleaned-up,” said BMI.