希望在尼日利亚油丰富的三角洲清理

在过去的半个世纪中，石油公司将西非的尼日尔三角洲（Niger Delta）转变为世界上最大的红树林沼泽之一，变成了有毒的景观。如今，它是密西西比三角洲的两倍，如今，它是一个荒凉的含油小溪，死鱼，臭沼泽和烧焦的土壤，在那里，村民在饮用水中暴露于危险的碳氢化合物水平。去年夏天，当那里最大的运营商皇家荷兰人壳牌队似乎准备签约三角洲最污染的心脏奥戈尼兰德（Ogoniland）时，人们就已经长大了。但是现在，人们越来越担心尼日利亚政府将要插入清理项目。

联合国环境计划（UNEP）的科学家进行了为期两年的研究，三角洲救援计划进行了两年的研究。他们调查了200个石油溢油地点和120公里的管道，从800个受污染的钻孔中研究了土壤和水，并举行了数十次乡村公开会议。

Their report,published last August，，，，was damning. In spite of corporate claims of assiduous cleanup, “at some sites, a crust of tar and ash has been in place for several decades.” All the creeks were contaminated, the scientists found, often with floating layers of ancient oil. Most fish had departed.

由亨里克·斯洛特（Henrik Slotte）领导的UNEP科学家是该组织的冲突和灾难管理部门负责人，他说康复仍然是可能的。但是，它需要“世界上最广泛，最长期的石油清理锻炼（在其中）受污染的饮用水，土地，小溪和重要的生态系统（例如红树林）恢复了充分的生产性健康。”报告总结说，清理Ogoniland将花费最初的十亿美元，最多需要30年。但是该项目可能成为修复其余灾难三角洲的典范。UNEP主任阿奇姆·斯坦纳（Achim Steiner）表示，他希望“这些发现可以打破该地区数十年的僵局……并为石油行业在非洲及其他地区的负责任方式提供了更高的负责任。”

The Niger delta contains the largest oil reserves in sub-Saharan Africa, with an estimated 40 billion barrels. Shell began oil pumping there in the late 1950s, when Nigeria was still part of the British Empire. Today its subsidiary, the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria, extracts some 100 million barrels a year in a joint venture with the state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Company.

The oil revenues provide 80 percent of the Nigerian government’s income and have helped make Shell the fifth-largest corporation in the world. But the environmental conditions have become an increasingly embarrassing anachronism for the company. Leaks have proliferated. One estimate is that 1.5 million tons of oil have been spilled into the wetlands over the decades from the delta’s 5,000 oil wells and more than 5,000 kilometers of pipelines. And with all this happening amidst some 1,500 delta villages, where ten million fishers and farmers gain little from the vast wealth being created around them, it has also been a recipe for injustice and conflict.

On a visit a few years ago, I saw pipelines, large and small, snaking through villages and across fields and bush, usually with no fences or markings. The signs of spills and oil fires were everywhere. Villagers complained angrily that

The pipelines that run across Ogoniland have repeatedly sprung leaks, due to both old age and sabotage.

油中毒了他们的农作物，清空了鱼的小溪，然后递给我谦卑的请愿书，寻求外部帮助。

村民越来越多地通过将插入插头带到管道上窃取石油并建立临时炼油厂，在那里他们提炼了被盗原油制作柴油，从而对自己的困境做出了回应。这加剧了三角洲的破坏。村民说，一些当地公司甚至破坏了管道，作为收集合同以清理混乱的一种方式。

三角洲的核心生活超过一百万。奥戈尼兰德（Ogoniland）就位于哈科特港（Port Harcourt奥戈尼人的生存运动（MOSOP）决定承担壳牌和尼日利亚政府。1995年，在社区内发生了激烈的争执之后，联邦法院裁定九名激进分子，包括摩苏普的创始人，尼日利亚作家肯·萨罗·韦瓦（Ken Saro-Wiwa），杀害了竞争对手的社区领导人。激进分子都被绞死了。壳牌否认处决同谋，但在2009年在纽约法院就此事提出了局外解决方案。

面对当地强烈的愤怒，自1993年以来，壳牌就没有从奥戈尼兰（Ogoniland）抽出一桶石油。这部分是因为其过去活动的有毒遗产，部分是因为跨越奥戈尼兰州的管道反复泄漏 - 通常是在老年和缺乏维护的过程中，但更频繁地通过破坏性。根据尼日利亚法律，壳牌负责清理其石油的混乱，无论是负责溢出的人。

2006年，当时的尼日利亚总统Olusegun Obasanjo邀请UNEP评估如何对Ogoniland排毒。花了两年的时间来谈判研究的条款 - 在此期间，政府对三角洲的持不同政见者进行了大规模的军事镇压。UNEP的Steiner说，在高热的气氛中，他因与壳牌的“勾结”而获得了Flak，这为这项研究付出了代价。但是他坚持认为由此产生的报告是真正独立的。

UNEP’s inspectors found Shell’s environmental stewardship often far below international standards. For instance, the company said it had cleaned up after a massive spill near Ejama-Ebubu village in 1970. But the inspectors found much of the 17-hectare spill area still caked with oil and asphalt

The UNEP found Shell’s environmental stewardship often far below environmental standards.

残留物继续渗入泻湖并毒化地下水。

UNEP criticized Shell’s standard method of handling spills in the delta, a process called remediation by enhanced natural attenuation (RENA). This involves piling up contaminated topsoil and adding fertilizer to speed up natural degradation of the oil. UNEP found that “the RENA process is failing to achieve either environmental clean-up or legislative compliance.” Often, rain washed the oil from the soil piles into wetlands and creeks. Sometimes, the company’s contractors had dug trenches to encourage just that.

如果油没有进入小溪，它经常将地下渗入用于饮用水的含水层。在Nisisioken Ogale，检查员发现村民喝水，其中含有900倍的世界卫生组织限制的致癌苯。原因很明确：井接近一条管道，由壳牌的主要合作伙伴，即国有尼日利亚国家石油公司经营，该公司在六年前遭受了重大泄漏。UNEP说，“公共卫生受到严重威胁”。然而，“在奥戈尼兰州没有地下水补救的地点。”

在大多数情况下，未经检查的地方，壳牌的Rena清理工作都不符合尼日利亚的法律标准。这也不只是不幸的历史遗产。该公司在2010年初成立了一个新的补救管理团队，但该报告发现“它们仍然不符合当地的监管要求或国际最佳实践。”

为了回应该报告，壳牌坚持说：“雷纳仍然是一种经过验证的国际认可的方法来补救溢出地点。”但是，该公司已承诺在奥戈尼兰州和整个三角洲“审查一系列站点”，以“检查确实已经进行了适当的补救措施。”到目前为止，还没有关于这些评论结果的公开报告。

壳牌说，今天的大多数溢出物是由其管道破坏引起的，当地敌对行动使团队派遣检查和清理困难。UNEP同意这通常是正确的。但是它指出，经过2008年的两次大规模溢出，每天泄漏了数千桶石油，该公司花了数周的时间进行维修。报告说：“访问问题不是延迟的唯一原因。”“此外，不能在社区的门口放置（石油）的不合标准方法和将石油引导到小溪的不道德行动。”

While the UNEP report relates specifically to Ogoniland, UNEP’s Slotte told耶鲁环境360that the findings on issues like cleanup and decommissioning wells and other infrastructure apply to industry activities across the whole Niger delta. At 1,000-square-kilometers, Ogoniland covers only about 3 percent of the delta, which extends across three states along Nigeria’s southern coast.

Several community groups have gone to court over their trashed environment. A Nigerian high court recently ordered Shell to pay $25 million to five communities for a spill that occurred in 1997. In March, more than 30

Nigerian press reports say the federal government is balking at paying 55 percent of the cleanup bill.

villages in Ogoniland began a class action against Shell in London, demanding compensation for two massive spills in August 2011 for which Shell has admitted liability.

但是，薪酬不会帮助三角洲人民在那里生活的环境或能力。UNEP报告及其对清理的承诺为此提供了机会。它提议建立一个Ogoniland环境恢复局，该机构将拥有最初的十亿美元，并将雇用数百名当地人清洁土地。之后，可以清洁小溪，疏ed，地下水净化，并重新种植红树林。

But eight months after the report’s release, the silence from the Nigerian capital, Abuja, grows louder.

去年八月，现任总统古德勒克·乔纳森（Goodluck Jonathan）成立了一个高级委员会，以考虑由石油资源部长迪扎尼·艾莉森·马杜克（Diezani Allison-Madueke）主持的UNEP报告。她至少知道三角洲。Born in Port Harcourt, she worked for Shell there for 15 years, rising to executive director, before joining the government in 2007. As part of her job as petroleum minister, Allison-Madueke also heads Shell’s partner in the delta, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation.

据说她的委员会在11月向总统报告，但斯洛特说，未通知UNEP任何结果。许多人担心她的事工会扫除清理计划。它的官员可能很生气，因为《联合国教科典军》的研究批评了该部对石油工业的监督，并呼吁将清理执行转移到环境部。

还有钱。尼日利亚最近的新闻报道说，联邦政府正在拒绝支付清理账单的55％，相当于与壳牌公司合资企业中利润的份额。壳牌说，它愿意支付其份额。

Some senior UNEP officials fear that unless there is agreement in the next few months, the scheme will be dead. It could still happen, of course. But I was struck by a sentence in Shell’s response to the UNEP report that suggested even a cleanup could cause conflict.

UNEP在其建议中指出：“在处理陆基污染之前，开始清理小溪将是徒劳的。”关键是一段关于“修复序列”的段落。但是壳牌选择将其解释为政治上。壳牌在其回应中说，它“与UNEP的发现，所有持续污染的来源，都一致，包括盗窃和非法炼油等活动[my italics], must be brought to an end before an effective widespread cleanup can begin.”

UNEP认为，污染修复可以帮助结束Ogoni人与壳牌之间的战争。但是在开始修复之前，壳牌希望对其设施的攻击结束。如果实现这需要在奥戈尼兰德进行另一个法律和订单的镇压，三角洲的居民可以轻松将未来的清理团队视为敌人，而不是救世主。