OIL: Prize or Curse?

Chidi Chike Achebe, MD, MPH & Paul R. Epstein, MD, MPH







AN INTERNATIONAL QUAGMIRE

Writing in Foreign Affairs (Jan/Feb 1999) Senator Richard Lugar and James Woolsey (former CIA chief) conclude: Both global warming and terrorism have their roots in our dependence on Middle East oil (66% of world reserves).



It is hard these days to think about oil. Images of explosions, war, mangled bodies, blood stained streets, hostages, oil spills, polluted beaches and dead birds and fish are not pleasant. But since so many of the world's ills stem from drilling this ''black gold,'' a review of its multifarious impacts helps narrow in on solutions that could change our course.

Once called ''The Prize'' by Daniel Yergin in 1991, oil has become ''the curse.''



Eighteen months ago, the spill from the Prestige -- carrying twice the oil as the Exxon Valdez -- stained the rugged Atlantic coast of Galicia, Spain, affecting more than 100,000 porpoises, puffins, gannets, and kittiwakes. The sequelae of this environmental disaster are still felt in the form of damaged fisheries, livelihoods, and tourism.

The increasing use of oil, as well as coal and natural gas -- all fossil fuels -- has come at an enormous price. An international cartel - the ''oiligarchy'' -- controls an expanding empire, and its discharges defile our air and land and water. More drilling threatens our national parks and wildlife refuges.



From extraction to combustion, oil is hazardous to our health -- and to our security.



Sitting on the world’s largest oil reserves are the “Gulf States” -Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq and Kuwait – countries that are at once very wealthy and mired by a history of political volatility. International petroleum supply lines have become increasingly vulnerable to this political instability.



Politicians such as the British MP Michael Meacher now suggest, cynically perhaps, that “certain oil interests” may very well have used the moral imperative for action following the senseless devastation of 9/11 as a shield to push for war in Afghanistan and Iraq, in order to secure a pipeline from the newest mega find of oil along the Caspian Sea through Afghanistan and expand their oil holdings in the region.



The Caspian Sea is in serious environmental danger. Bordered by Russia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, and Iran, the world’s largest body of fresh water has been the dumping ground for DDT, heavy metals, PCBs, nuclear waste, dioxins and increasingly, petroleum products for years. Several bird and fish species are disappearing under the environmental strain. Of particular concern is the fate of the Caspian sturgeon and the Caspian seal, one of two freshwater species in the world, that have been pushed to the precipice of extinction, at the hands of commercial fishermen, poachers and polluters, operating with reckless abandon since the break up of the former USSR.



In Nigeria, Ecuador, Venezuela and Sudan, oil has widened economic divides and the wealth generated engenders conflicts. Nigeria has suffered profoundly from political unrest fueled by oil and from reprisals in which thousands have been killed. The corruption spawned by oil casts a vast net of social pain that has not abated with the transition to democracy.



Venezuela has been in cyclic turmoil, with oil the trophy. Angola, rich in oil, diamonds, and gold, has just ended a 30-year war, leaving physical devastation across the land. Its wealth in petrodollars has fanned skyrocketing corruption, with some news agencies reporting upwards of $2 billion dollars missing from its treasury over the past 10 years! Graft and corruption have also rocked Mexico’s premier oil corporation PREMEX for years. As for Russia’s oil industry, it has become a case study for students of organized crime!



Since 1997, Equatorial Guinea’s economy has expanded by nearly 80%, buoyed by an off-shore oil boom. Many observers doubt that this West African nation’s newly found wealth will benefit the average citizen, as the president's family and a few others control the industry, and have siphoned away large amounts of the oil revenue into private bank accounts. Large off shore oil fields have also been sold off to former dictators and corrupt government officials and businessmen from Nigeria, Europe, and America.



Meanwhile, deep in the Ecuadorian forest, discharges from 333 wells despoil Indian homelands and contaminate the headwaters of the Amazon. In Africa's most populous nation, sludge sickens communities as slicks bathe Niger River banks. In the Gulf of Mexico, the Niger River Delta, and the Persian Gulf, fish nibbling near drilling sites get their fill of mercury and other toxins and pass it on to birds, marine mammals, and humans who eat them. Refining emits benzene, which causes cancer, and burning pollutes the air and water with mercury, particles, and smog and causes acid rain.



We are rapidly approaching a critical climatic and social threshold, and we must find a substitute for this finite resource. As ''The Prize'' foretold, oil has become the central actor in the modern world, and an unstable climate and the accompanying destabilization of relationships among microbes, humans, other animals and plants threaten our health and the very forests and coral habitats we all depend upon.



The Coming Energy Crisis or Energy Crunch?

In their article called the “the Coming Energy Crisis” James L. Williams, President, WTRG Economics, and A. F. Alhajji of Ohio Northern University believe that  ‘all the warning signs that existed prior to the energy crises of 1973 and 1979 exist today  – international competition for resources, conflicts/war in the major producing areas, an unsettled US economy, an increasing and insatiable world and US consumption of oil (76.21 million bbl/day  and 19.65 million bbl/day respectively) [i], and poor or inadequate energy conservation policies.’



Other oil industry analysts fear that the world is standing at the precipice of a looming economic recession that threatens the standard of living, health and prosperity of billions around the globe. Events of recent months such as Al Qaeda’s targeted attacks of foreign oil workers at the heart of Saudi Arabia's oil industry that murdered 29 persons, including several Americans, one Egyptian and one South African, and the precipitous increase in the international market price for oil ($US41.97 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange for July delivery), have only fueled their concerns. [ii]  Expert analysts such as Rainer Henning posit that despite increases in oil production by Saudi Arabia and others, “the psychological effect of insecurity has a stronger impact on prices than the foreseen increase of production” on the world oil markets. [iii]



Environmentalists provide an additional perspective: The increasing cost of oil will drive many developed nations (outside the United States) - most of Europe and Japan -away from dependence on fossil fuels and closer to alternative energy sources. Already, the volcanic island Iceland is progressively tapping its abundant source of geothermal power to heat its homes and produce electricity. Throughout Europe and Japan, the use of hydrogen as a “clean fuel” is being introduced to power mass transit and automobiles. There also, alternative energy sources like solar panels already light homes, clinics, power computers and small businesses, cook and refrigerate food, and purify and pump water for consumption and agriculture. Such distributed generation provides greater security for the grid in the face of storms and heat waves while stimulating markets for clean energy technologies (i.e., measures that harmonize adaptation with mitigation/prevention).



Europe and Japan’s gradual exit from the global oil market economy and reliance on foreign oil portends a bleak future for fossil fuels, and might usher in an improvement in the environment and a retreat for the ‘combustion age’. Decreased demand for oil will lead to an eventual collapse in prices and production in the long term. For OPEC and other oil export dominant economies, this prediction should come as a “wake up call”. For Africa, the continent least prepared financially to make the transition away from the use of fossil fuels; this development poses a complex conundrum.



The African Predicament

Rainer Henning reminds us that “Africa traditionally gets hardest hit by an oil crisis and by negative world economy conjunctures. This is because the energy sector in most countries is totally dependent on imported oil and because transport costs constitute a substantial part of African production costs. These increased oil prices come as some African economies are experiencing strong growth due to painful reform and a world economic environment that is still relatively positive. Growth at a continental scale is expected to reach between 4 and 5 percent annually this and next year. These optimistic figures however were drawn before the oil price jumped to new records.” [iv]



In a few African countries such as Algeria, Cameroon, Egypt, Libya and perhaps Gabon, increased oil prices should translate to increased revenue. [v] For other oil producers - Nigeria, Angola, and Equatorial Guinea in particular - plagued by social pathologies such as corruption - there is expected to be several paradoxical outcomes. In these countries, increased oil revenues may not actually lead to increased growth or benefit the majority population, because additional oil revenue has in the past, been siphoned off by corrupt government officials. A culture of inadequate maintenance illustrated by dilapidated refineries, and antiquated and broken down oil pipeline systems, have turned many of these same nations into importers of refined petroleum products. ‘Nigeria has four refineries - Kaduna, Warri, Port Harcourt I and II - with a combined installed refining capacity of 445,000 barrels per day. Despite $800 million that has been allegedly spent by the present administration to fix these refineries, their optimum refining capacity has been about 360,000 bpd’, forcing the country to import nearly 90,000 bpd of refined petroleum products! [vi]



The overall effect of higher prices for many African oil producers is often similar to that felt by the non-oil producing nations of the continent. Beset by higher production costs, ballooning unemployment, crashing cash crop, mineral and timber prices on the world markets and looming economic recession, these countries may buckle under the strain. The lasting effect may be a spiraling downward cycle of economic stagnation, poverty and despair. This may in turn set the stage for widespread political volatility and the evolution of social strife and conflict. Without aggressive planning, financial assistance and commitment, the journey towards energy conservation and transition to alternative energy sources for Africa will be a difficult one indeed!



 OIL: NIGERIA’S CURSE?

“With a population of 126,635,626, Nigeria is Africa's most populous country. One in seven Africans is a Nigerian as is one in ten blacks on the Planet. It is located in West Africa, bordering the Gulf of Guinea, between the countries of Benin and Cameroon. Its total area of 923,768 sq. km makes it slightly larger than twice the size of California.”

“Half of the country identifies itself as Muslim, 40% as Christian. Animists and those with other beliefs comprise 10% of the population. Nigeria is made up of more than 250 ethnic groups. The following are the most populous and politically influential: Hausa and Fulani 29%, Yoruba 21%, Igbo (Ibo) 18%, Ijaw 10%, Kanuri 4%, Ibibio 3.5%, and Tiv 2.5%.”[vii]

          

Nigeria is the 9th largest oil producer in the world and the principal oil producer in Sub-Saharan Africa. It is the 5th most important exporter of petroleum to the United States. Nigeria's economy today is heavily dependent on the oil sector, which accounts for around 80% of government revenues, 90-95% of export revenues, and over 90% of foreign exchange earnings. ‘Nigeria's real GDP growth was 2.8% in 2000 about 3.5% for 2001 and 3.9% for 2002.’[viii]



Nigeria contains estimated proven oil reserves of 22.5 billion barrels and produces 90 million tons per year of crude oil. Most of this is extracted from the oil rich Niger River Delta. The country also contains about 124 Tcf of proven natural gas reserves mainly from onshore fields and the swampy areas of the Niger River Delta. Current daily production of crude oil is about 2.0 million barrels per day, but has peaked at about 2.4 million barrels per day in the past. Nigeria is a member of OPEC the global oil cartel. In response to world oil prices, OPEC stipulates Nigeria’s production quota. The Ministry of Petroleum Resources regulates the petroleum industry in Nigeria. ‘The government retains close control over the industry and the activities of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC), whose senior executives are appointed by the ruling government.’ [ix]



 CORRUPTION AND POOR LEADERSHIP

 “The trouble with Nigeria is simply and squarely a failure of leadership. There is nothing basically wrong with the Nigerian character. …The Nigerian problem is the unwillingness or inability of its leaders to rise to the responsibility, to the challenge of personal example which are the hallmarks of true leadership”

Chinua Achebe, ‘The Trouble with Nigeria”, 1983



It is almost impossible to argue with the point that Nigeria has performed very poorly over the past four decades in the midst of “petro-dollar riches”. Between 1958 and 1983, the government majority owned the NNPC placed earnings from oil at over $101 billion. The World Bank quotes a figure closer to $300 billion, highlighting governmental fraud and waste as the reason for the accounting discrepancy.



Most pundits will agree that the blame for Nigeria’s dilemma lies squarely at the feet of the incompetent leadership it has endured over most of the same period. A nightmare of an unending stream of mediocre leaders turned this once burgeoning nation into a ‘basket case’. The presence of eager and equally scheming multinational oil company executives, and easy access to petrodollars, helped fan skyrocketing corruption, particularly in the public sector. This created a suitable milieu for a culture of “kickbacks”, government sanctioned bunkering of oil, and the emergence of a corrupt and politically inept leadership desperate to cash in on the bonanza.



Devoid of the moral, ethical, intellectual, or ideological discipline and preparation for leadership, some of these individuals stashed away millions and in a few exceptionally offensive cases, placed billions of dollars in foreign bank accounts. All this as the country burned. “Nero would approve!”



Social historians remind us that corruption in Nigeria wasn’t always as bad as it is today. Before the advent of the “oil era”, Nigeria’s economy was principally driven by agriculture. She was one of the three largest exporters of cocoa, and one of the world’s leading palm oil, palm kernel as well as groundnut producers. Legend has it that the Malaysians came to Nigeria to learn how to produce Palm oil during this period. [x] Malaysia is now the largest producer and exporter of palm oil in the world. Palm oil provides about 10 percent of the Malaysian gross domestic product. Today, sadly, Nigeria imports most of her food, and ironically, also purchases palm oil from Malaysia!



By the 1960s, a series of ‘petty government scandals involving certain federal ministers’ piqued the Nigerian national consciousness. The “oil boom years” of the 1970s and early 1980s saw the evolution of bribery and corruption into a social pathology. However, by the 9th decade of the 20th century, corruption had been clearly elevated to “cult sport status”. Today, that legacy has turned corruption into a national pastime, paralyzing any possibility of meaningful development. James Wolfensohn, President of The World Bank makes a crystal clear prognosis: "Corruption is a cancer in the country [Nigeria]. You can pretend to live with cancer, but it kills you.”



‘The Open Sore of a Continent’ – Wole Soyinka

 It is difficult to determine just how badly a country is performing without comparing poverty indices across nations in the world.  Here are some indisputable facts: 70% of Nigeria’s almost 130 million inhabitants live in abject poverty, defined by the World Bank as “subsistence on less than $1 a day”. According to the UN, only 50 per cent or a half of all Nigerians have access to safe water. Today in Nigeria, life expectancy is between 49 and 52 years and infant mortality is over 77 per 1000 births – one of the highest in the world and a figure comparable to that of war torn Afghanistan!



In the 1970s, Nigeria’s GNP per capita income approached $500, a figure that peaked at nearly $2000 at the height of the ‘oil boom’ between 1978 and 1982. Today, Nigeria’s GNP per capita income is $260. Once described as a middle income nation by the Paris Club, three decades of government corruption, and apathetic followers, has seen Nigeria reclassified as one of the 20 poorest nations in the world. The expert analysis of Victor E. Dike reveals even more: “Nigeria’s current GNP per capita of about $260 is below that of less affluent countries such as Bangladesh with a per capita income of $370. Nigeria’s low per capita income compares with those of smaller African countries with less endowment in natural resources, such as Tanzania with a per capita income of $260 and Mozambique of about $220. African countries that enjoy impressive standard of living are South Africa with a per capita income of $3,170, and Botswana with a per capita income of $3,240[xi]. Nigeria’s poor per capita income becomes more frightening when compared with those of some western nations. For instance, the GNP per capita income of the United States was about $27,086 in 1996 (USAID 2002); and recently that of Britain was put at $23,590 (The Commonwealth Yearbook, 2002). This is not to mention the impressive economic performances of the four Asian Tigers of Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong!” [xii]



Many an analyst has spent sleepless nights pondering over the reasons for Nigeria’s predicament. In the preceding section on poor leadership and corruption, we started to crack this conundrum. However, it may also be useful to examine the role of the oil industry in the underdevelopment of Nigeria.





THE OIL INDUSTRY: Poverty, Penury, Pollution, Political Unrest and Physiological Pathologies



 The Oil Industry’s Destructive Presence

Two centuries ago in his seminal text The Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith made the assertion that “Great nations are never impoverished by private, though they sometimes are by public prodigality and misconduct”. Nigeria may at once be both the confirming example of such a country and one that deviates from the doyen of Economics’ statement.



The role of multinational oil corporations in the dispossession and impoverishment of native peoples has now become a specialized intellectual discipline. Joan Martinez Arlier’s work on Extractive Corporate Giants’ effect on local peoples is alluded to in the following segment from the Rain Forest Action Network:



“A myth promoted by the oil industry is that oil and gas positively contribute towards capitalization and development on a local level. The truth lies far from this corporate spin. Ecological economists point to the de-capitalizing nature of extractive industries for local peoples and the environment, particularly when the commodity is sold at an under-valued price. Oil and gas operations are a quintessential example of this debilitating phenomenon. The full social and environmental costs of oil and gas operations are not passed on to the consumer, but rather displaced to the local communities and ecosystems in the form of polluted waters, deforestation, and increased social conflicts” [xiii]



‘Oil and gas projects arrive with great costs to economic opportunity. The prospects of economic diversification in areas where Oil Giants set foot often quickly vanishes as these monopolies dominate the economic activity of their areas.’[xiv] Another reason for the inability of the locals to pursue other viable economic options is pollution. Unregulated pollution by the multinational companies tends to devastate ecosystems, making commercial fishing, sustainable forest management, ecotourism and commercial agriculture unattainable. [xv]



A novel strategy employed by Oil Giants is often the process of dispossession and disempowerment. As foreign companies, their interests lie elsewhere and the underpinning motive is profit.  Shell’s own company reports indicate that of the $500 million dollars in profit that the company makes yearly in the Niger River Delta, $200 million of that is returned to its head offices in Hague and London. The balance is not invested in the surrounding communities, but in the ‘maintenance’ of its land concessions that now stand at 31,000 square miles, salaries for 5,500 workers, including about 500 expatriates and dilapidated infrastructure. [xvi] This process is made substantially easier if the multinationals have corrupt government officials willing to sacrifice their own people for a chateau in Switzerland.



 The decision making process in the Niger River Delta is made in the absence of Local leaders or their representatives. In their absence, the multinational oil companies do not have a compelling reason to weave local community interests, traditions or cultural norms into their strategies for production or expansion.



Several studies highlight the noose of debt that oil dependence ties around the economic necks of countries in the South dependent for their sole source of foreign exchange on the Oil Industry. As a capital-intensive business, it forces most countries to borrow substantial amounts of money from foreign banks to sustain it. This often leads to mountains of debt, cuts in social programs, human suffering and political instability. [xvii] Some observers have gone as far as calling this conundrum “the new slavery”.



The presence of the multinational oil companies has aided the establishment of a two tiered social system in this region. A very small group of company workers, mainly foreign educated locals and expatriates, live in self-contained ‘Shell development layouts’. These are islands of development that contain all the amenities found in the West. The rest of the teeming population, 17 million strong, are literally locked out, and subjugated in abject poverty and penury. This has been a recipe for the social resentment, anger and political uprisings in the region. [xviii]



Political Uprisings and Resistance

Two reasons underpin most of the civil unrest in the Niger River Delta area. The first is the unfair distribution of the country’s annual oil revenues among the Nigerian population, a practice that favors non-oil-producing regions of the country. The second has to do with seething resentment towards the Oil Multinationals for their role in the devastation of the environment. Although all multinationals have been targeted in the disputes, Shell has been the main focus. The new democratic dispensation has not brought an end to political uprisings in the area. Civil unrest has resulted in over 5000 deaths since the transition to democracy, and has resulted in the closures of terminals and flow stations. Karl Meier tells more: “Violence in the Niger River delta, home to a majority of Nigeria's oil reserves, kills about 1,000 people a year, on par with conflicts in Chechnya and Colombia, according to a Shell- funded report…. The 93-page survey also said Shell itself ``feeds'' the violence and may have to leave the area by 2009.”[xix]



The recent removal of oil subsidies by the Federal Government has resulted in a hike in oil prices, labour union demonstrations, the resurgence and significance of the black market, and long lines at Petrol stations. President Obasanjo continues to insist that the hike in fuel prices is the right measure to stimulate the oil sector and the economy. Lay and expert observers alike continue to contend that the amount of money that is lost via corruption would be sufficient to maintain oil subsidies, and keep the price of petroleum products affordable to the average Nigerian. President Obasanjo has committed his government to resolving the problems and cleaning up the industry and the government in terms of corruption. Environmentalists, local and labour leaders are not holding their breadth.



ENVIRONMENTAL DEVASTATION OF THE NIGER DELTA

 "Appalled by the denigrating poverty of my people, who live on a richly endowed land; distressed by their political marginalization and economic strangulation; angered by the devastation of their land, their ultimate heritage; anxious to preserve their right to life and a decent living, and determined to usher into this country as a whole, a fair and just democratic system which protects everyone and every ethnic group and gives us all a valid claim to human civilization, I have devoted my intellectual and material resources, my very life, to a cause in which I have total belief and from which I cannot be blackmailed or intimidated."

                             --    Ken Saro-Wiwa
                    Closing statement to Nigerian military court [xx].



The controversial execution of Ogoni environmental activist Ken Saro-Wiwa in November 1995, attracted international attention to the plight of the Ogoni people and other minority groups in the oil-producing areas of the Niger River Delta. It, for good or ill, instantly placed a spotlight on the struggle of these and other peoples in the region to free themselves from the clutches of multinational corporations such as Shell which have destroyed their homelands through environmental pollution.



The Niger River Delta is an environmental disaster zone. Between 1986 and1996, 2.5 million barrels-equal to 10 Exxon Valdez disasters- has been spilled in this region. The burning of 8 million cubic feet of natural gas everyday compounds the environmental catastrophe. [xxi] According to Green Peace:



“Since the beginning of Shell’s operations in the Niger Delta, the company has wreaked havoc on neighboring communities and their environment. Many of its operations and materials are outdated, in poor condition, and would be illegal in other parts of the world” [xxii]



The Sierra Club goes even further:



“The Oil Industry has had devastating effects. Our report  found ‘badly maintained and leaking pipe lines, polluted water, fountains of emulsified oil pouring into villagers’ fields, blow outs, air pollution.’ Farms and fisheries are spoiled, and the mangrove swamps, which provide people with building and other materials and are a vital part of the ecosystem, are disappearing. At the same time the people get little benefit from the immense wealth being generated.” [xxiii]



Pollution caused by the oil and natural gas industry has been mind-boggling and extensive. It has led to ground water pollution, which in turn has caused outbreaks of diarrhea epidemics. Birth deformities are on the rise as are certain soft tissue cancers. Environmental pollution has led to the displacement of farmers and their families into surrounding urban centers already ill equipped to deal with the economic, social and health requirements of their burgeoning populations. Most of the new migrants in these urban centers become trapped in cycles of poverty and penury.



LAND AND SOIL DEGRADATION

One of the major causes of the ‘rural flight’ is the pollution of the soil and land and the concomitant, progressive reduction in crop yields in the Niger River Delta. The oil industry has caused soil and land degradation through multiple mechanisms. Soil pollution has led to a decline of soil fertility through the dumping and build up of toxic substances. There has been a deterioration of soil physical properties as a result of reduced organic matter (the structure, aeration and water holding capacity of soil is affected), and reduction of soil organisms. There has also been an associated decline in soil biological activity. Other devastating effects of polluting activities include water logging, increase in salt or starch soil content, sedimentation or “soil burial”, loss of vegetation cover through deforestation, and soil erosion. [xxiv]



Nigeria lost approximately 469 square miles annually to deforestation between 1990 and 1995 according to the World Bank figures. This value, however, includes only those areas lost due to shifting cultivation, permanent agriculture, ranching, settlements, and infrastructure development, and does not include the areas of land loss due to fuel wood gathering.[xxv]Be as it may, 96% of Nigeria’s pristine forests have been cut down!



BIO-DIVERSITY LOSS

One of the immediate consequences of this form of human intrusion is significant loss of biodiversity. Under this strain, species may be pushed to extinction. The ecological benefits forests provide to the environment, such as watershed protection, nutrient recycling and climate regulation are lost with deforestation of this magnitude. [xxvi]



Other consequences include decreased species diversity, due to reduced habitable surface area, which corresponds to a reduced "species carrying capacity". Genetic diversity diminishes as the size of habitats shrink. This phenomenon also drastically affects the populations of species living in these environments. Smaller habitats can only accommodate smaller populations; this results in an impoverished gene pool. Flexibility and evolutionary adaptability to changing situations is severely hampered as the genetic resources of a species diminish. This has significant negative impacts on species survival. [xxvii]



AIR POLLUTION

 As a result of the gas flaring activities of Shell and other multinational oil companies, Nigeria has worn the unflattering badge as the world’s leader in natural gas flaring. This activity has produced ‘acid rain’ and amplified the number of respiratory ailments and lung pathologies in the region.



According to the World Bank, 87% of all associated gas is flared by Shell and her cohorts as compared to 21% in Libya and 0.6% in the United States. World Bank records highlight the fact that the Niger Delta atmosphere receives 80 billion cubic feet of gas from the oil industry’s flaring activities. This gives Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC), the dubious distinction of being one of the world’s chief contributors to global warming. [xxviii]Happily, the Liquefied Natural Gas projects, now beyond phase-2, may reduce Nigeria’s contribution to the world’s climatic instability.



WATER AND MARINE POLLUTION

There is an absence of pipe borne water in the Niger Delta area. Most of its freshwater is obtained from wells dug with antiquated technology by the villagers themselves or obtained as “fetching water” from streams or creeks. This makes the inhabitants of this region particularly vulnerable to environmental pollution. [xxix]



Ground, fresh and marine water in many ways is the final meeting point of other forms of pollution – particularly air, land, and soil pollution. Land pollution either from oil spills or from leaching or erosion from soil or acid rain, often finds its way into creeks, streams and rivers, which ultimately contaminate marine bodies and seep into ground water.



The oil industry’s extraction of petroleum from the coastal area and the continental shelf of the Gulf of Guinea, compounded by activities devoted to the exportation of the oil products, have had an increasing, detrimental effect on marine ecosystems. Scores of ships that move in and out of the Gulf of Guinea have produced millions of metric tons of oil sludge that end up on the seabed contaminating marine habitats. The sludge is discharged from the marine tankers when they release their ballasts, since the vast majority of them are not equipped with oil and water tank separators, referred to as segregated ballasts tanks (SBT).



Very little documented information is available about the quantity of oil that is spilled by the oil industry’s offshore jetties. Indirect evidence from oil washed onto coastal shorelines and beaches in the area suggest that the pollution is significant. Their coastal location makes mangroves vulnerable to marine oil spills and on-going pollution from offshore rigs. The oil spills in mangrove habitats permeate exposed tree trunks, accelerating the rate of decay of these precious plants and leads to shore line erosion. Devastated also are the fauna and flora, organisms big and small that depend on mangroves for survival. The destructive spiral continues down the food chain as fish populations diminish as do fisherman harvests.



“WE ARE DYING” [xxx]: OIL POLLUTION, SICKNESS AND DEATH

 The impact of the Oil Industry’s presence on the health of the inhabitants in the Niger Delta is multi-dimensional. The salient areas are discussed below.



The combustion of fossil fuels produces a toxic mixture of gasses and coated carbon particles. Carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, sulfur oxides, nitrogen dioxide and various polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are produced during this process. ‘The particulate matter in the smoke column is what is most injurious to human health. The small particles, 10 microns or less in diameter are most lethal. These particles are the ones that are small enough to lodge in human lungs’.  Long term exposure to these substances impairs human health the most severely. [xxxi] However, short-term exposure to high concentrations can aggravate symptoms in sensitive individuals with heart or lung ailments such as Asthma, COPD or Coronary Artery Disease. Lung cancers can also result from long term exposure to air borne pollution. This problem is being encountered throughout the Delta region. [xxxii]



Oil spills and spills are capable of generating serious air pollution whether or not the oil undergoes combustion. The toxic fraction of light crude oil (found in The Niger Delta Region), evaporates most easily carrying with it a deadly cocktail of PAHs, including benzene (a known human carcinogen) and toxic fumes, such as toluene, xylene, butane, and propane. Air quality after such spills is compromised for an extended period of time – enough to seriously impair human health. [xxxiii] Acid rain further complicates the problem, altering surrounding streams, creeks and polluting ground water.



The incidence of skin diseases from bathing in polluted water has dramatically increased. Ground water pollution causes repeated outbreaks of diarrhea.



 Malnutrition with the evidence of Kwashiorkor has returned to this part of Nigeria (it was last evident during the Civil War). The combined impact of water and land pollution is responsible for crop failures and diminishing fish populations.[xxxiv]



LEAD POISONING

Unlike most of the West, petroleum refined for automobiles is still laden with lead. The team of Nigerian scientists Obioh, Oluwolu and Akeredolu et al, in their thorough study of Lead Poisoning in Children in Nigeria, provides remarkable evidence of the far reaching effect, albeit indirect, of the Oil industry on the health of Nigerian children. In their randomized sample of children between the ages of 1-6, they found the average blood lead level to be 106 micrograms/liter, and 2% of the children had a blood level greater than 300 micrograms/liter. The five-year-old Nigerian children in their studies were found to have the most elevated serum lead levels. For comparison, the acceptable upper limit of normal for the United States is debatable, but ranges from 10-15 micrograms/dl.



Other authors of similar studies came to parallel conclusions, and ascribe this finding to long term exposure to environmental pollution during playtime outside. They report the total amount of atmospheric lead emissions to be about 3000 metric tons a year. The main culprits for this problem were found to be the use of leaded gasoline in cars and combustion from the oil industry. [xxxv]



There is suggestive information about the role of lead in hypertension. However, links to kidney disease and neurological damage -blindness, brain damage, seizure disorders - have been firmly established. Convenience sample surveys of individuals living in this part of Nigeria, suggest that these disorders could be a major problem amongst Delta inhabitants, though careful studies are needed to confirm this. [xxxvi]



ARSENIC

Arsenic, widely distributed throughout the earth’s crust, is introduced into groundwater from erosion and dissolution of arsenic-containing mineral ores. In addition, the combustion of fossil fuels is a significant source of arsenic in the environment. [xxxvii] Arsenic has been found in the wells dug for drinking water in the River Niger Delta and long term exposure has been linked to a variety of illnesses including hypertension, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and infertility, cancers of the skin, lungs, urinary bladder and kidney.



 CYANIDE

Toxins such as phenol cyanide and sulfide-suspended solids are also found in large concentrations in the River Niger Delta. Cyanide is a particular problem, because cassava - a primary food source in this region – contains cyanide at its early stages of its growth (to ward off insects). People have evolved in association with this staple crop and have thus survived in the presence of substantial high serum levels of cyanide. But Shell’s oil pollution, particularly through leaks and spills, has led to the bio-concentration of this toxin in animals, fish and plants ingested by humans. These added overwhelms the innate evolutionary serum cyanide counteracting mechanisms, leading to elevated serum levels, rendering the regions residents more vulnerable to cyanide-related disease. Cyanide’s effects on the neurological system (disabling neuropathies), the thyroid gland and the respiratory system are well documented. [xxxviii]



Florence Obani-Nwibari et al. impart this information about the health of Ogoni (a major ethnic group in the River Niger Delta) women and children:



“The physical health of the people, particularly the women, has deteriorated. Exposure to gas flares and contaminated water has caused health problems. Ogoni people eat fish from poisoned streams. Most do not have the resources to pay for health care and medicine. Even for those who do, there is not a single fully equipped government hospital in Ogoni land. Women frequently die at childbirth or give birth to premature babies. The lack of diagnostic medical laboratories in Ogoni prohibits us from knowing the extent of the health problems caused by oil pollution….”[xxxix]

 

SOME SOLUTIONS AND STRATEGIES



A)   A) Save the environment: Clean up the Niger River Delta

For thousands of years, human settlements in the Niger Delta, endowed with discipline and respect for its surroundings, existed in symbiosis with one of the largest, efficient and productive equatorial ecological systems in West Africa. It is now evident to many observers that driven by greed and profit, four decades of multinational oil exploitation in this region has resulted in one of the worst environmental offenses in history.



Shell and other multinational oil corporations would be wise to heed their own funded reports that encourage them to clean up the Niger Delta; or should be forced through all possible legal channels to do so. Programs to provide social and health care services must be complemented by cleaning up the vast Delta Region of Nigeria. Only extensive ecological reconstruction of this once extremely productive area can possibly redress and reverse the destruction of the environment and the dispossession, destitution and denigration of local populations. With the enormous profits gained from the region over the past four decades, oil industries can easily afford to do this. As a major producer of oil for combustion and flared gas that directly emits greenhouse gases, it is in the interest of the world community to clean the Niger Delta and dramatically the extractive practices. Reducing demand for oil through greater efficiency is the part other nations can play.



B) Stamp out corruption

 “Nigerians are corrupt because the system they live under today makes corruption easy and profitable. They will cease to be corrupt when corruption is made difficult and inconvenient”

 – Chinua Achebe [xl]



It is clear that strong leadership is central to the solution of corruption and other social pathologies in Nigeria. Skyrocketing subornment has been kept alive by a history of easy and unrestricted access to large amounts of petrodollars by government officials, without accountability. Individuals who have clearly looted the national treasury have borne no cost, setting the stage for a legacy of ‘kleptocracy.’



There has been a great deal of ‘nice sounding government rhetoric’ about fighting corruption. Access to the nation’s wealth, i.e. petrodollars that fuel the corruption, must first be controlled and restricted. The current democratic dispensation provides a novel chance for Nigeria to cultivate a culture of accountability, openness and transparency in government, as well as in the oil sector. Developing a system of checks and balances that makes “corruption inconvenient” – enforcing jail terms for the guilty; mandating unannounced auditing by non-government firms with impeccable reputations; making government earnings public; publishing oil corporation account portfolios - costs, expenditures, salaries, budgets, etc. – can have a profound effect in redirecting Nigeria’s downward course and weakening state.  The ripple effects of such a transformation would be felt in a myriad of areas. Most profoundly, it would set the stage, at last, for a generation of leaders who adopt public service to “serve the nation, and not to get rich”.



C) Reading the writing on the wall: Economic Diversification

 Nigeria depends on oil for 90-95% of export revenues, and over 90% of foreign exchange earnings. A similar story can be told of several other African oil producers. As a finite source of energy, fiscal dependence on the sale of fossil fuels is beset with future financial instability and does not provide the basis for sound economic planning. At some point, the Hubbert curve for world oil will enter the down slope. Extraction will become more expensive and, eventually, this fossil fuel – essential for transport throughout the globe -- will disappear.[1]It behooves the Nigerian government and all oil producers to begin seek other sources of energy and diversify the sources of revenue.



In his book Poverty and Famines: An Essay on Entitlement and Deprivation, published in 1981, Professor Amartya Kumar Sen argued against the view that a shortage of food was the most important explanation for famines, but suggested the interplay of social and economic factors to elucidate this phenomenon. The Nobel laureate’s work has made it clear that several African Oil exporters including Nigeria are a collapsed oil market away from famine. Sustained investment in the manufacturing sector as well as the Agricultural sector while the petrodollars are available would be advisable!



Nigeria, like India, has an elaborate tertiary educational system. Unlike India, however, university graduates of the citadels of higher learning in Nigeria face dismal job prospects. The universities of Ibadan, Nsukka, ABU, Bayero, Lagos, Nnamdi Azikiwe, OAU etc. could become sources of intellectual expertise for a homegrown High technology industry that could generate billions of dollars in revenue.



New industries could include those for:



1. Energy-efficient technologies and vehicles;

2. ‘Smart ‘ technologies to optimize the function of electric power grids

3. ‘Green’ buildings and allied technologies (insulating, solar-power producing windows)

4. Improved public transport.

5. Means of distributed generation – wind, solar, tidal, wave, geothermal, fuel cells.

Distributed generation measures provide protection against physical, storm and heat wave–related disruption of grids and promote pathways of mitigation (prevention of climate disruption).

These industries, along with those for ecological reconstruction, can create new enterprises and jobs.



D)    TRANSITION TO ALTERNATIVE ENERGY SOURCES

 We need a new energy policy -- and urgently. Japan and the EU have led the way in making this much needed gradual transition to cleaner energy sources. In the US and other countries where such a transition is eminently possible, a great deal of catching up is needed in order that they do not lose comparative advantage in what will surely be burgeoning world markets. In the past century, huge subsidies assisted oil exploration and facilitated the supporting infrastructure – vast networks of highways and airports. Those ‘monies’ will be sorely needed to make this shift in world civilization away from the combustion age. The developing world too, must begin to move away from the use of fossil fuels and its suffocating environmental and economic strangle hold. For all nations, proper, coordinated planning and adequate economic incentives will be needed to jump-start and sustain the new enterprises and markets.



Switching to clean energy sources will require creativity and a lot more collaboration than the world has seen to date.  But the potential costs of inaction are enormous, and the proper incentives can create a new clean engine for the global economy and propel us into a much healthier future.



Dr. Chidi Achebe is the Medical Director of Whittier Street Health Center in Boston

Contact:  CAchebe@hsph.harvard.edu



Dr. Paul R. Epstein is Associate Director of the Center for Health and the Global Environment (CHGE) at Harvard Medical School.



[1] Paul Roberts, The End of Oil: On the Edge of a Perilous New World  -- See http://www.motherjones.com/news/qa/2004/05/paul_rob_qa.html

and

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0618239774/qid=1088948208/sr=2-1/ref=sr_2_1/103-4591855-6171048.)

[i] World Fact Book, 2003

[ii] From Article by Henning, Rainer Chr., Afro news editor: “High Oil Prices After Terrorism threaten African growth”  May 31, 2004

[iii] Ibid.

[iv] Ibid

[v] Ibid.

[vi] Akin O. Olaniyan The Punch, Wednesday June 09, 2004

[vii] CIA World Fact BOOK –Nigeria (Website: http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/ni.html)

[viii] Ibid.

[ix] Ibid.

[xi] The Commonwealth Yearbook, 2002; The Guardian Online, March 17, 2002
[xii] Dike, Victor: The Global Economy and Poverty in Nigeria http://www.gamji.com/NEWS1809.htm

[xiii] Joan Martinez Alier, Rain Forest Action Network: Ecological Debt-External Debt, Briefing Paper, July 1997. Also Website: http://www.ran.org/oilreport/bleak.html

[xiv] Ibid.

[xv] Ibid.

[xvi] Ike Okonta and Oronto Douglas, Where Vultures Feast: Shell, Human Rights and Oil in the Niger Delta (Sierra Club Books, New York 2001) p.49

[xvii] Joan Martinez Alier, Rain Forest Action Network: Ecological Debt-External Debt, Briefing Paper, July 1997. Also Website: http://www.ran.org/oilreport/bleak.html

[xviii] Anonymous source.

[xix] Karl Meier, Bloomberg News Agency, June 10, 2004

[xx] http://nativenet.uthscsa.edu/archive/nl/9511/0379.html

[xxi]CIA: Unclassified study of  the Oil industry in Nigeria, (Web site: http://www.electrifyingtimes.com/deltadawn.html)

[xxii] Greenpeace International, Shell-Shocked. The Environment and Social Costs of Living with Shell in Nigeria, Researched and written by Andrew Rowell, July 1994, 9.

[xxiii] Sierra Club: Environmental Update, Human Rights and the Environment, International Campaigns: Nigeria. Web site:www.sierraclub.org/human-rights/nigeria/background/survival.asp

[xxiv] Ibid. Also Website: http://www.unu.edu/env/plec/l-degrade/D-Ch_2.pdf which sourced the FAO. Also Website: www.envsci.rutgers.edu/~gimenez/SoilPhysics/Lect1.PDF

[xxv] United States Energy Information Administration (Web site:  www.eia.doe.gov/cabs/nigenv.html)

[xxvi] Ibid. p.1

[xxvii] Class Notes: Human Health and Global Environmental Change, Harvard Medical School, 2001. Also independent Research

[xxviii]  Ike Okonta and Oronto Douglas, Where Vultures Feast: Shell, Human Rights and Oil in the Niger Delta (Sierra Club Books, New York 2001) p.67

[xxix] Ibid.

[xxx] Statement by a Fisherman from the Niger River Delta as quoted by Ike Okonta and Oronto Douglas, Where Vultures Feast: Shell, Human Rights and Oil in the Niger Delta (Sierra Club Books, New York 2001

[xxxi] Website: orr.webmaster@noaa.gov

[xxxii] Ike Okonta and Oronto Douglas, Where Vultures Feast: Shell, Human Rights and Oil in the Niger Delta (Sierra Club Books, New York 2001)

[xxxiii] Website: orr.webmaster@noaa.gov

[xxxiv] Ambrose O. O. Ekpu, Environmental Impact of Oil on Water: A Comparative overview of the Law and Policy in the United States and Nigeria. (Denver Journal on International Law and Policy, 24:1995) p.55

[xxxv] Obioh; Oluwole; Akeredolu. Atmospheric lead emissions and source strengths in Nigeria: 1988 inventory. In: Heavy Metals in the Environment (R.J. Allan and J.O. Niragu, Eds) CEC Consultants Ltd, Edinburgh, Scotland, 1993. P 271-274.

[xxxvi] Anonymous source.

[xxxvii] Website: http://www.who.int/inf-fs/en/fact210.html

[xxxviii] Website: http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/toxprofiles/phs8.html

[xxxix] Webssite: http://www.afsc.org

[xl] Interview with Chinua Achebe, June, 2004 © Chinua Achebe Foundation, 2004

Chinua Achebe: The Trouble with Nigeria, Fourth Dimension Publishers, 1982, p. 38.