Five years after one
of the worst oil spills in the country’s history, Shell officials began talks
in Port Harcourt with representatives of the Bodo community on compensation and
cleanup.
Some experts say two
oil spills that started in 2008 led to the largest loss of a mangrove habitat
ever caused by an oil spill, affecting about 30,000 people in the Niger Delta
area since then, according to a London-based law firm, Leigh Day.
Since 2008, the
people in that community have being living on a creek of oil. You step out of
the front door, you see oil, breathe in oil and toxic fumes,” said a lawyer,
Daniel Leader of Leigh Day, representing about 15,000 people from the community
that filed a lawsuit in 2012.
Although Royal Dutch
Shell has admitted responsibility for the two spills, the impact has been
disputed and will be the main focus of negotiations in Port Harcourt.
Royal Dutch Shell
said a joint investigation team estimated that 4,100 barrels were lost in the
two spills. That estimate is based on the initial investigations by
representatives from the company and the local community, spokesman, Jonathan
French, told the Associated Press.
Leigh Day said that
15,000 fishermen and 31,000 inhabitants of 35 villages were affected in and
around the Bodo lagoon and its associated waterways.
The law firm said
independent experts estimated between 500,000 and 600,000 barrels were spilled,
devastating the environment that sits amid 90 square kilometres (35 square
miles) of mangroves, swamps and channels.
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