By Gambo Jagindi
August 03, 2021
Pathetic : Community Hosting OML 18 & OML 24 Drinking Polluted Water
The Pathetic living conditions of Bille Community, a community that is hosting
OML18 and OML 24 oil well in Port Harcourt, Rivers state Nigeria
The appeal by President Muhammadu Buhari on the need for cooperate organization to perform their stake of exercising Corporate Social Responsibilities (CSR) to their host communities seems to yield no result,
This is because majorities of the multinational companies operating in the Niger Delta region had ignored that appeal
They have failed in the performance and execution of CSR to their host communities and continue with their usual characteristics of playing deaf,dumb and blind to the plight and suffering of the people
The sources of water supply, sanitation and hygiene practices of the community hosting OML 18 and OML is terrible
The community urgently desire the attention of Government or the companies operating in that region to provide portable drinking water
OML 18 is located to the south of Port Harcourt and contains 11 oil and gas fields. Eight have been developed with six fields currently producing. The terrain of the block is mangrove swamp, and it is heavily intersected by rivers and creeks. Field facilities are mounted on semi-submerged piled platforms and drilling requires a swamp barge.The Cawthorne Channel field has produced most of the oil on OML 18. Crude is exported to the nearby Shell-operated Bonny oil terminal.
OML 24 is located 30 kilometres southwest of Port Harcourt and is part of the NNPC/Shell Joint Venture (JV). The block is one of the smallest by area in the JV and lies within the near-shore swamp of the Niger Delta. OML 24 contains three producing fields; Awoba, Awoba Northwest and Ekulama. The Awoba field has sporadically produced sales gas, but only a fraction of its reserves have been produced.The terrain makes for very challenging ..
Aluta News report on the urgent need for the government and the multinational oil companies operating in the community to ensure a regular supply of safe water to people in this community as their right to water continue to be violated, force to drink dangerously polluted water or buy water at unaffordable prices