Oil Spillage: Association advocates regular auditing of exploration facilities in Niger Delta

The Environmental Management Association of Nigeria (EMAN) has advocated regular auditing of the facilities used by multinational companies for oil exploration in the Niger Delta.

The President of the association, Dr Emmanuel Ating, said in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday in Abuja.

Ating, was speaking against the backdrop of incessant oil spill in the Niger Delta due to the non-compliance with oil exploration best practices.

He said that oil spillage and other related issues would cease if the Federal Government were to ensure that oil exploration facilities used by oil companies were properly audited.

Oil spillage has been going on for a long time now and the issue of environmental audit is lacking because the relevant government institution is not putting pressure on those companies causing the spillage.

A regular auditing of the quality of materials and technology used by these companies – that is compliance audit – is required.

If this audit is carried out regularly, I believe that the problem of oil spillage and most of the things we are having now, will be minimised.

Auditing is for you to find out if the technology they are using – the equipment, the pressure of pipes and the quality of steel, the quality of pipes – conform with the standards set by Nigeria because audit provides a time frame within which those materials must be changed.’’

The president of the association called for the design of an environmental management plan that would ensure a functional environmental and waste management system.

Ating said that such plan would help government to tackle the myriad of environmental challenges in the country.

On the pending clean-up of Ogoni land, he said that the participation of the people living in the area was critical to the success of the project.

The people are supposed to be carried along in the clean up; the people are supposed to be engaged fully in the cleanup.

The government is supposed to let them understand the procedures for the clean-up and they should make them understand that what the government wants to do is being done out of sincerity.

They should engage them to know their problems and possible ways assist to help them. It will be very sad that this Ogoni land cleanup is left unattended to.’’

According to him, professionals should be engaged in handling environmental issues in the country. (NAN)