{"id":978993,"date":"2023-02-02T00:01:20","date_gmt":"2023-02-02T00:01:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/?p=420666"},"modified":"2023-02-02T00:01:20","modified_gmt":"2023-02-02T00:01:20","slug":"13000-people-from-the-niger-delta-just-sued-shell-for-years-of-oil-spills","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2023\/02\/02\/13000-people-from-the-niger-delta-just-sued-shell-for-years-of-oil-spills\/","title":{"rendered":"13,000 People From the Niger Delta Just Sued Shell for Years of Oil Spills"},"content":{"rendered":"

The water<\/u> in Ogale, a rural community in Nigeria, is so toxic and polluted with oil that it comes out brown and stinks of sulphur. Children and families get sick just trying to bathe or stay hydrated. In Bille, a fishing community of around 45 islands surrounded entirely by water, there are no fish left. Oily water seeps into people\u2019s homes, and, without a source of income, money is scarce. The signs that once warned people of the dangers of chronic pollution are covered in rust.<\/p>\n

These Niger Delta communities have been facing pollution caused by Shell for decades, devastating their health and livelihoods. In 2011, the United Nations Environment Programme reported<\/a> that the threat to public health warranted \u201cemergency action.\u201d At the time, the cleanup process would have taken 30 years, if initiated immediately.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

It never happened. Shell refused to cooperate, and the situation has only gotten worse, with 55 oil spills in the last\u00a012 years. Amnesty International\u00a0called<\/a> the Niger Delta region \u201cone of the most polluted places on earth.\u201d<\/p>\n

On January 27, over 11,300 residents from Ogale \u2014 which has a population of approximately 40,000 \u2014 and 17 local organizations, including churches and schools, filed individual claims at the High Court in London against Shell. With the existing claims from the Bille community, this brings the total number against the oil company to over 13,650.<\/p>\n

The Ogale and Bille locals attribute environmental destruction, death, and diseases to the repeated spills. Infants in the Niger Delta, for instance, are twice as likely to die in their first month of life if their mothers live near an oil spill, according to a study<\/a> published in 2017.<\/p>\n

Local leaders are distraught and angry. \u201cAs we speak, oil is spilling in my community every day, people are dying,\u201d King Emere Godwin Bebe Okpabi, leader of the Ogale community, told The Intercept.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you don\u2019t have money, you can\u2019t drink water. It\u2019s like we are living in a desert, while we are living on the water.\u201d<\/blockquote>\n

In 2016, a year after the initial legal case got underway, Okpabi flew to London for a High Court hearing with plastic bottles full of contaminated water from Ogale, visibly covered in an oil sheen.<\/p>\n

In Bille, Chief Bennett Dokubo, a community leader and claimant, told The Intercept that drinking water has caused massive cholera outbreaks. The only way to avoid disease is buying bottled water from the city, which is expensive.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you don\u2019t have money, you can\u2019t drink water,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s like we are living in a desert, while we are living on the water.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shell has so far managed to brush aside accountability. In February 2021, though, the Niger Delta communities secured a procedural win: The U.K. Supreme Court unanimously ruled that there was a \u201cgood arguable case\u201d that Shell plc, the U.K. parent company, was legally responsible for the pollution caused by its Nigerian subsidiary, Shell Petroleum Development Company, and that the case would proceed in the English courts.<\/p>\n

The following November, Shell filings claimed the company had no legal responsibility to deal with the consequences of spills. The oil giant contended that any legal claim must be brought within five years of any specific spill, even if a cleanup never took place. Shell also claimed that only the Nigerian regulatory authorities have the power to force them to clean up; those authorities, however, are chronically under-resourced. (The Nigerian government could not be reached for comment.)<\/p>\n\n

\u201cThe overwhelming majority of spills related to the Bille and Ogale claims were caused by illegal third-party interference, including pipeline sabotage, illegal bunkering and other forms of oil theft,” said Tara Lemay, a Shell spokesperson, in a statement to The Intercept. \u201cIrrespective of cause, SPDC has and will continue to clean up and remediate areas affected by spills from its facilities or pipeline network.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Since 1956, when<\/u> Shell first discovered oil in the Niger Delta, extractive industries have pumped the region for profits and bolstered a rapidly growing Nigerian economy. Nigeria is now Africa\u2019s largest oil producer, and Shell continues to reap unprecedented financial gains, bringing in over $30 billion in profit in 2022.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll the money they have made from then until now is blood money,\u201d Okpabi, the king of Ogale, said. \u201cAnd we are going from courthouse to courthouse.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Despite the fact that the cleanup would cost Shell a fraction of its profits \u2014 the\u00a0U.N.\u00a0estimated<\/a> the first five years would cost around $1 billion \u2014 the company has been \u201cincredibly resistant\u201d to any form of public health monitoring or investigations, said Matthew Renshaw, a partner at law firm Leigh Day who represents the claimants in Nigeria.<\/p>\n

Renshaw told The Intercept that Shell will not engage with the health dangers and that the company is currently only facing the tip of the iceberg.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are literally hundreds of communities that have been impacted by Shell\u2019s oil pollution,\u201d he said, \u201cand could seek to bring legal claims against Shell.”<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are literally hundreds of communities that have been impacted by Shell\u2019s oil pollution.”<\/blockquote>\n

Leigh Day previously represented the Bodo community in the Niger Delta, on behalf of 15,000 fishers and farmers. In 2015, the suit, in British court, resulted in compensation for loss of livelihoods of approximately $68 million, along with the world\u2019s largest cleanup of oil-impacted mangroves in history.
\n

\n\"LONDON,\n

Protesters assemble on the 27th anniversary of the Ogoni 9, including Ken Saro-Wiwa, being executed in Nigeria for opposing Shell in London on Nov. 10, 2022.<\/p>\n

\nPhoto: Martin Pope\/Getty Images<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n

As the cases proliferate, Shell has moved toward leaving the region. In 2021, the company announced<\/a> its plan to leave the Niger Delta and sell its onshore oil fields \u2014 leaving environmental disaster and any sense of obligation behind.<\/p>\n

Last June, though, Shell was forced<\/a> to suspend sales, complying with a Nigerian Supreme Court ruling that said it had to wait for the outcome of an appeal over a 2019 oil spill, brought in Nigerian court, which\u00a0stated the company needed to pay the Niger Delta communities nearly $2 billion in compensation.<\/p>\n

Leigh Day\u2019s current case is now proceeding to trial to determine whether Shell\u2019s parent company in London, as well as its Nigerian subsidiary, are legally responsible for the harm caused to the communities in the Niger Delta. The trial in the High Court in London is expected to take place in 2024.<\/p>\n

Until then, the communities try to remain hopeful about the case.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are very hopeful,\u201d said Okpabi, \u201cbut time is not on our side.\u201d<\/p>\n

The post 13,000 People From the Niger Delta Just Sued Shell for Years of Oil Spills<\/a> appeared first on The Intercept<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

This post was originally published on The Intercept<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cAs we speak, oil is spilling in my community every day, people are dying.\u201d<\/p>\n

The post 13,000 People From the Niger Delta Just Sued Shell for Years of Oil Spills<\/a> appeared first on The Intercept<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26272,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[393,340],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/978993"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26272"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=978993"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/978993\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":978994,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/978993\/revisions\/978994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=978993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=978993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=978993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}