Nigeria reviews Ogoni contingency plans

The Nigerian Government has begun remediating 16 sites impacted by oil pollution across the four local government areas in Ogoniland. According to a report on the allAfrica site, outgoing Environment Minister, Suleiman Hassan Zarma, disclosed this to journalists at his valedictory press briefing last week. In 2016, President Muhammadu Buhari launched a clean-up in Ogoniland as recommended by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), resulting in the set up of a new Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project. Zarma noted that the federal government handed over the clean-up of an additional five sites to contractors approved by the Federal Executive Council last month. He added that scooping/delineating of Phase 1 remediation sites was ongoing while procurement for Phase 2 remediation has started. Zarma added that the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency was reviewing the National Oil Spill Contingency Plan, Regional Oil Spill Contingency Plan and Facility's Oil Spill Contingency Plan.