The Federal Government has commenced the second phase of the Ogoni clean-up being implemented by the Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project, HYPREP.
The Minister of Environment and Chairman of the HYPREP Governing Council, Balarabe Abbas Lawal, spoke at Bodo City, where a monument was unveiled to mark ten years of the Ogoni clean-up programme.
Lawal said the commencement of work on complex polluted sites was a testament to the progress recorded in the remediation of simple and medium-polluted sites.
Meanwhile, the HYPREP Project Coordinator, Professor Nenibarini Zabbey, described the shoreline and mangrove clean-up as the largest of its kind in the world.
Zabbey said the ecosystem was beginning to recover following the first phase of the remediation, with biodiversity gradually returning to the area.
He appealed to shoreline communities to avoid over-harvesting fish and periwinkles that are returning to the waterways.
At a stakeholders’ meeting held as part of activities marking ten years of HYPREP, the member representing Khana/Gokana Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, Dum Dekor, appealed to the Federal Government to release additional funds to accelerate the Ogoni power project.
