Human Ecosystems: Okoroba-Nembe
20.10 ADDENDUM: LOCAL PEOPLE AND THE OIL INDUSTRY
The relationship between Okoroba and Shell offers an insight into the problems faced by local people in the Niger Delta in their dealings with oil companies. As an addendum to this chapter, and for the benefit of anyone who is researching into the issue, the raw data for what was proposed as a following chapter is set out. This chapter was to have been called "Okoroba and Shell – A Way Forward." However, time has taken its toll, and for this edition, at any rate, the chapter has had to be omitted. The data includes:
- An ERA statement of August 1994, concerning Okoroba
- An ERA commentary of early 1997, concerning Okoroba
- A Shell statement on Okoroba dredging
- An ERA commentary on the Shell dredging statement
- Initial ERA conclusions arising from Shell's relationship with Okoroba, including the entire Shell environmental policy as at 1995.
An ERA statement of August 1994, concerning nembe & Okoroba
Nembe at night is a strange experience for the sky is bright with the red glow of the Shell flow stations on the Nembe Creek. The narrow streets of the town are illuminated with hundreds of traditional Nigerian oil lamps made from tin cans, because there is no electricity, although one quarter of the town often throbs with racket of the private generator belonging to the Shell agent (the silencer had broken). Wisely the town councillors use the one municipal generator and the limited amount of fuel to pump fresh water from a borehole. When the generator breaks down, brackish water is drawn from wells.
Typical of the problems that the town suffers in relation to the oil industry is an incident in 1993 when the Ogbolombiri jetty was damaged. Although the jetties belong to the town, they are used by boats belonging to Shell and its sub-contractors who do not pay a harbour fee. One night, a dredging boat tied to the Ogbolombiri jetty drifted into the river pulling part of the jetty with it. The dredging company (a Shell sub-contractor) promised to repair the damage but in fact nothing happened until the town youths impounded two of the company's motorboats refusing to release them until the repairs had been completed.
In recent demonstrations about the environmental damage to Nembe Creek caused by the oil industry, the youth leader of Basambiri was deliberately shot in the legs by soldiers while making a peaceful presentation of grievances. In January his house was unaccountably set on fire while he was inside.
The plain tactlessness of the Shell activities is well exemplified by its treatment of Okoroba and other villages along the Okoroba River. To facilitate exploitation of the Okoroba oil field Shell has needed to dredge and straighten the river, and to construct a canal (known as a slot) beside Okoroba to provide access to a capped well-head. Before undertaking these activities Shell staff were sent to the villages to explain what was to happen (under the current land-use decree, there is no need to purchase land for oil extraction work once an agreement has been made with the state governor). Shell gave the impression that the way of life of the community would be changed for the better with electricity, education and health services, with the result that, as we were told at a village meeting, the youths "jubilated".
However reality was somewhat different. In the first place, the slot beside Okoroba drained the fresh-water creek upon which the village depended, replacing it with a stagnant body of brackish water (for the slot is a sort of cul-de-sac) which is useless for
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