Marvin Dekil

Marvin Dekil, is a Nigerian environmental scientist, lawyer, businessman and politician. In 2017, President Mohammadu Buhari appointment Dr. Dekil Founding Project Coordinator of Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project (HYPREP) at the Federal Ministry of Environment, the agency responsible for the implementation of UNEP Environmental Assessment of report and cleanup of oil polluted sites in Ogoniland and Niger Delta region of Nigeria. Quotes The HYPREP Project Coordination Office was set up in March 2017 with the mandate to remediate the oil-polluted sites of Ogoniland and to restore the livelihood of the people. Activities at the PCO commenced in April 2017 when the project coordinator assumed duty. The period between April 2017 and December 2019 was used to plan and put up contracts that were awarded in the fourth quarter of 2018, and remediation works started in January 2019. The award of contracts has to follow through with the Public Procurement Act, 2007 and while most people expected that we go out to hire contractors, we have to comply with the law of the land. With the procurement processes out of the way, there were issues of land disputes between communities and chieftaincy tussle, as well as flooding, which affected the timely mobilisation of contractors to site. Community issues dragged on until early January 2019 when some were resolved. These issues affected the commencement and speed of work. Another setback is the lockdown and reduction of the workforce in order to observe the COVID-19 guidelines of social distancing. The Federal Government and the joint venture partners have agreed to provide funding for the cleanup of Ogoniland as recommended in the United Nations Environment Programme report. And HYPREP was established by the Federal Government to implement the recommendations contained in the report. Initially, N1bn was recommended and that money was raised in this administration. Now, the money is given at $200,000 yearly, which is meant to start from when we started in 2017. However, that they are giving you $200,000 yearly does not mean that you will spend all of it, rather the funds are all tied to various cleanup activities. So, what has been released to this point for the activities that we are currently doing is about $30m. Now every year, as I said, you have to provide $200,000. But right now, we are still dealing with the less complex sites and have not got to the sites that will take much of the money. The remediation projects are executed in phases, as the sites are divided into complex and less complex locations. We are now in the less complex sites. We first awarded contracts to 21 companies, and in February this year, 36 companies were awarded contracts. So right now, we have 57 companies on various sites. The first 21 companies have completed their jobs by about 70 per cent on the less polluted sites, and in few months, the jobs would have been fully completed on the sites allocated to them for remediation. Also, it should be noted that HYPREP commenced preliminary remediation activities in early 2018, almost eight years after the UNEP report was submitted. The UNEP report on the assessment of Ogoniland was carried out between 2009 and 2011. Also, I would like to state that in the cleanup process, the speed of each contractor differs due to the difference in terrain and community issues. So, based on the current status, about 70 per cent are expected to complete work by the end of August 2020. The other 30 per cent is expected to finalise by the end of November 2020. All remediated sites will be certified by the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency, being the lead regulatory agency for oil spill management in Nigeria. The hydrocarbon-impacted sites have been classified into two categories for the ease of implementing the remediation process. These are the sites listed in UNEP report factsheet. Category A is the sites with significant hydrocarbon contamination in the soil and groundwater. These are classified as complex sites because of the presence of both soil and groundwater contamination. We have 27 sites in Category A. On the other hand, Category B are the sites with lighter hydrocarbon contamination, limited mainly to the soil in the upland areas. We have 27 sites in this category. There is also another classified as Category X. These are sites with low hydrocarbon contamination impact which were listed in the UNEP factsheet 11 years ago, and a total of 11 sites fall into this category. In view of the length of time of the UNEP report aforementioned, a recent quantitative risk assessment is required and will be carried out at each of these sites to determine the current condition and will be re-classified and treated accordingly. External Links