Post #220

The Real Black Africa [ Cost of Negligence ] 🌟 In Nigeria's Ogoniland one must at all costs forgo smoking - as well as anything that is linked with fire. With soil displaying benzene levels more than 900 times above World Health Organization guidelines, the region is full of black, lifeless creeks where fish, mangroves and farm soil have been soaked in crude oil for decades. Oil arrived in Ogoniland in the late 1950s. In 1970 oil drops touched the soil, marking what was the first serious spill in the region's history. Between 1976 and 1991 alone, more than 2 million barrels of oil leaked in almost 3,000 incidents. The main reasons - low quality of pipes and careless maintenance, recurrent explosions, oil theft. ➡️ For years, oil companies and the Nigerian government pointed to billion-dollar clean-up projects as proof of action and awareness. However, the efforts existed mainly in speeches and reports. After the UN report in 2011, experts called for an initial $1 billion over five years to begin restoring Ogoniland. In 2012 Nigeria launched a special agency HYPREP for the clean-up and set up a fund paid into by Shell and other firms operating in the region. HYPREP only managed to start its work after in 2016 - and even so the remediation has started on only about 11 percent of the polluted sites. Today no site is still fully cleaned. On 13 March, 2025, Shell sold its Nigerian subsidiary SPDC - which provoked suspicion that the company is going to wash its hands of this tainted story. More than a decade after the UN’s alarm bell, many communities still wait for clean water, healthy soil and a shoreline where children can play without stepping into crude. #CostOfNegligence Devils Below