By David Owei<\/p>\n
The Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF) on Tuesday demanded urgent cleanup, compensation and accountability over an oil spill at Nembe Creek in Bayelsa.
\nThe spill occurred on Aug. 22 during crude oil loading operations at Oil Mining Lease (OML) 29.
\nThe operational mishap disrupted fishing activities and threatened the livelihoods of coastal communities.
\nThe facility is operated by Nembe Exploration and Production Ltd., formerly Aiteo Eastern Exploration and Production Ltd., within Oil Mining Lease 29 (OML 29).
\nHOMEF made the call after a field visit to the affected area, where crude oil was observed in waterways and along mangrove banks.
\nThe organisation said the pungent smell of crude was noticeable about two kilometres before reaching the community.
\nIt added that residents reported tidal movements had spread the pollution through interconnected waterways and fishing settlements.
\nAccording to HOMEF, affected communities depend heavily on fishing for food and income.
\nResidents reportedly complained of damaged fishing nets, reduced fish catches and inability to use the waterways for fishing and domestic purposes.
\nThey also reported the disappearance of aquatic resources following the pollution.
\nVice-Chairlady of Nembe Creek women, Mrs Love Mark, said the spill had made fishing nets unusable.
\n\u201cWe cannot go out with our fishing nets and hooks for fishing again,\u201d Mark said.
\nShe said a fishing net now cost between N150,000 and N170,000, making replacement difficult for affected residents.
\nThe Paramount Ruler of Nembe Creek communities, HRH Agent Waya, said repeated pollution had severely affected fishing livelihoods.
\n\u201cDue to the destruction of aquatic life, there are no fish in the river,\u201d Waya said.
\nHe said fishermen could use two or three canoes and still return without any catch.
\nFollowing the incident, community women reportedly protested at the oil facility, demanding cleanup, damage assessment and support for affected residents.
\nThe Joint Investigation Visit (JIV) concluded that the leak was due to operational failure.
\nHOMEF, however, said the volume of crude released and the full geographical extent of the pollution remained inconclusive as of Sept. 1.
\nThe Executive Director of HOMEF, Dr Nnimmo Bassey, said identifying the cause of a spill should not end the accountability process.
\nBassey said the latest incident occurred against the background of previous pollution incidents associated with OML 29.
\nHe specifically cited the prolonged 2021 Santa Barbara Well 1 spill and wellhead blowout.
\nHe emphasised that recurring spills should be treated as a systemic environmental governance concern rather than isolated incidents.
\nHOMEF urged Nembe Exploration and Production Ltd., the Bayelsa Government and relevant federal regulatory agencies to publish the complete JIV findings.
\nIt said the findings should include the cause, estimated volume, geographical extent and communities affected by the spill.
\nThe organisation also demanded an independent and comprehensive environmental assessment of affected waterways, mangroves, fishing grounds and settlements.
\nHOMEF called for immediate cleanup and ecological restoration, with clear timelines and transparent monitoring mechanisms.
\nIt also demanded urgent relief for affected households, particularly fishing families whose livelihoods had been disrupted.
\nThe organisation called for compensation for verified livelihood and economic losses, including damaged fishing equipment and lost fishing time.
\nIt further urged authorities to include all affected communities and fishing camps in JIVs, damage assessments, cleanup and monitoring.
\nHOMEF called for sustained environmental and health monitoring of water, sediments, fish and other aquatic organisms.
\nIt also urged the strengthening of spill prevention and emergency response systems around crude-loading facilities.
\nThe foundation said authorities must address the wider legacy of pollution in OML 29 rather than treat each incident separately.
\nHOMEF also called for protection of community fishing livelihoods from the wider operational activities associated with crude loading.
\nIt cited the impacts of navigational buoys and vessel movements on fishing grounds and equipment.
\nThe organisation said communities should not continue to bear the environmental and economic costs of oil extraction amid limited accountability.
\nHOMEF urged authorities and the operator to move beyond emergency responses and strengthen pollution prevention and transparent investigations.
\nIt also called for meaningful community participation, ecological restoration and livelihood recovery as integral parts of environmental governance in Nembe.
\nThe foundation said the people of Nembe Creek deserved clean waterways, protected livelihoods and environmental justice.
\nPublic Affairs officials at Nembe Exploration and Production have kept mum over the incident and declined to provide requisite updates on containment efforts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By David Owei The Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF) on Tuesday demanded urgent cleanup, compensation and accountability over an oil spill at Nembe Creek in Bayelsa. The spill occurred on Aug. 22 during crude oil loading operations at Oil Mining Lease (OML) 29. The operational mishap disrupted fishing activities and threatened the livelihoods of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17508,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17507","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-oil-gas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17507","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17507"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17507\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17509,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17507\/revisions\/17509"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17508"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}