Published on: 09/02/2008
The environmental damage caused by [...] poor clean-up methods could be disastrous, Emmanuel Emmanuel, an environmental scientist in Port Harcourt, said. “Oil does not burn at 800 degrees Celsius,” he explained, “so when you burn it, you just flare off the volatiles and gas. The dense crude remains… One drop of rain and you see the black spots,” he said.
Across Kedere and similar villages in the region, evidence of the damage is readily apparent in the oil sheen on the soil and water.
“The land is devastated. The drinking water and streams are polluted. As it rains, we use the rain water but cannot drink it, because even that is full of crude oil,” youth leader Amstel Monday Ebarakpor told IRIN.
“At every groundwater intrusion, you see seepage. Sometimes you can see oil sheen on drinking water,” he told IRIN. “Crude will be there for the next 50 years.”
Source: IRIN, 7 Feb 2008
