If the promises made by the federal government is anything to go by, Nigerians, especially those residing in the Niger Delta areas should breathe a sigh of relief.
On 12th January 2017, the Governing Council appointed by the federal government approved the appointment of Dr. Marvin Dekil, an indigene of Ogoniland, as the Project Coordinator after an international competitive process that saw applications received from other well qualified candidates from around the world.
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The Niger Delta Project office will be staffed by an initial 30 staff from both federal and state levels. Additional contracted experts from outside the system will be supported by Project Management Consultants, Monitoring & Evaluation Consultants and Communication Company.
The clean-up project is to be funded by SPDC with an initial $1bn disbursed at $200m per annum over 5 years. A $10m takeoff grant has been provided.
Following the flag off, a Technical Committee was set up in the Ministry, and has been working on the project-related activities that must be addressed immediately.
Some of these projects in preparation include;
1. Provision of clean drinking water to the impacted communities.
2. Conducting a health impact assessment study being planned, in order to begin to better understand the level of the human health issues referred to in your letter.
3. Demonstration of remediation technology, which will allow for the testing of the different approaches that are being proffered from around the world, and to ensure that only the best is ultimately applied.
4. Groundbreaking for the construction of an integrated contaminated soil management centre which will be critical to the clean-up process.
5. Groundbreaking for the construction of a Centre of Excellence. &
6. Training
These are the activities that the UNEP Report recommended for start-up. On 16th February, the Governing Council will be performing a ground breaking ceremony for the construction of an integrated Contaminated Soil Management Centre, provided for in the UNEP Report.
