The Federal Government has assured it is on course with the remediation process of oil-polluted sections of Ogoniland.
It said 17 sites had already been cleaned up and certified cleaned.
Minister of Environment, Mohammed Mahmoud, who disclosed this to State House Correspondents after the week’s virtual Federal Executive Council FEC meeting in the Presidential Villa, Abuja, also assured the various other components of the clean-up agreement are being attended to as the main process progresses.
According to him, the budget for the administrative body, which is overseeing the clean-up process, the Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project (HYPREP, was just passed on Tuesday.
Mahmoud said that government had awarded contracts for six water projects in the area while 400 Ogoni women have been graduated in various small businesses in agriculture, aquaculture, poultry and others.
According to him, “And so far, so good, I can tell you that project has moved forward, we have about 17 contaminated sites that have been cleaned up and certified, clean. And then just recently also, we awarded contracts for six water project, this water project should have been awarded earlier from the very beginning of the project.
“But we awarded that about over 6 billion Naira. Again, we’re working towards additional eight water projects that will be coming very soon. In fact, we just get the approval to advertise for that and also to go into the complex side.”
He said that the government was still working on the simple side of the project and the complex side would be coming soon, adding that it will include remediation of the soil and the groundwater.
“So the project is moving fast, we are catching up the little time we have lost in the last couple of years, especially because of the COVID also, but so far, so good,” he said
