The Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC) in collaboration with CORDAID have decried the slow pace of the cleanup work in Ogoniland and call on the Federal Government to separate HYPREP, the agency overseeing the cleanup exercise, from the Ministry of the Environment (MOE).

CISLAC explained that the attachment of HYPREP (Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project) to the MOE is clogging the pace of work due to a lot of bureaucracies in getting things done.

CISLAC’s Executive Director, Mr Auwal Musa Rafsanjani made the disclosed at a one day media engagement with senior environment editors by CISLAC in Lagos yesterday.

The CISLAC boss, who was represented by Mr. Kola Banwo, Programme Manager of CISLAC, stated that the process has dragged for eight years, for a situation where there are emergency measures related to people’s health; and that sources of water that ought to have been supplied to the community is still not provided, leaving the people with no choice but to continually drink the poisonous water available.

According to Rafsanjani, the critical situation in Ogoniland had degenerated to the point where life expectancy has reduced to between 41 and 43 lower than the national average of 67; children are born deformed; women suffer miscarriages; and within a month, at least 40 people are buried in one single community as a result of the enormity of degradation.

SOURCE: oglinks.news