By Tife Owolabi
YENAGOA, Nigeria (Reuters) – An ongoing oil spill at a wellhead and subsequent fire in Buguma community in Nigeria’s coastal Rivers state has entered its fourth week, with no immediate action taken by authorities or operators to halt the destruction, rights groups said on Tuesday.
Environmental Defenders Network (EDEN) and Youths and Environmental Advocacy Centre (YEAC-Nigeria) said residents alerted them to the spill, which has been ongoing for weeks.
An EDEN spokesperson said the situation as an environmental crisis that has lasted too long, calling on the authorities to put out the blaze and halt the spill, which has led to widespread pollution in the area.
“It is unfortunate that for the people of the localities involved, the year has started on a bad note with the disruption of the environment that sustains their livelihood,” Chima Williams, executive director at EDEN, said in a statement.
The state oil firm NNPC Ltd, which operates the asset, attributed the fire to an act of sabotage by oil thieves attempting to steal crude. It said the incident is part of a disturbing trend of attacks on wellhead in the area, including the use of explosives.
NNPC is combating the fire and will work to reduce the financial impact of these criminal acts, a spokesperson said.
Decades of oil spills have blighted Nigeria’s Niger River delta region, causing widespread environmental damage that has destroyed the livelihood of millions in the local communities and impacting their health.
(Reporting by Tife Owolabi in Yenagoa; writing by Elisha Bala-Gbogbo; editing by Jason Neely)
