While the eyes of the world are fixed on the BP oil leakage in the Gulf of Mexico outside of Louisiana, US, another much less publicized leak has been ongoing for decades in the oil rich Niger delta in Nigeria, reports the Guardian (and today Swedish newspaper DN).
The Guardian article states:
In fact, more oil is spilled from the delta’s network of terminals, pipes, pumping stations and oil platforms every year than has been lost in the Gulf of Mexico…With 606 oilfields, the Niger delta supplies 40% of all the crude the United States imports and is the world capital of oil pollution. Life expectancy in its rural communities, half of which have no access to clean water, has fallen to little more than 40 years over the past two generations. Locals blame the oil that pollutes their land and can scarcely believe the contrast with the steps taken by BP and the US government to try to stop the Gulf oil leak and to protect the Louisiana shoreline from pollution.
What can Ghana and our emerging oil industry learn from this mess?
Pic borrowed from Veronique de Viguerie / Getty Images at Pikele.
