Oil Pollution: Ogoni Women Call for Genuine Cleanup of Communities

Oil Pollution: Ogoni Women Call for Genuine Cleanup of Communities Blessing Ibunge in Port Harcourt Women from K-gbara Dere community in Gokana Local Government Area of Rivers State have recounted the devastating effects of decades of oil pollution on women, agriculture, water sources and livelihoods in Ogoniland, calling for a transparent and effective cleanup of contaminated communities. Among these women stakeholders, an elderly woman from the community, Mrs. Grace Nwindee, stated this during a community engagement visit by the Renevlyn Development Initiative (RDI) to oil-impacted areas of Ogoniland aimed at amplifying the voices of women and drawing attention to the gendered consequences of extractive activities. The visit also reinforced RDI’s commitment to promoting women’s parti-cipation in environmental advocacy and strengthening gender-sensitive reporting, following its training of female journalists on reporting the impacts of extractive activities in Nigeria. Recounting her expe-riences, Nwindee said residents had endured foul-smelling air, skin irritations, declining agricultural yields She explained that rainwater often caused severe skin rashes among women working on farms, while previously productive crops had gradually disappeared due to unexplained diseases. According to her, a nutritious local cocoyam variety known as ‘Cocondia’ has become increasingly scarce after diseases destroyed its leaves before maturity. She lamented that oil spills had rendered portions of farmland unproductive, leaving the soil unusually hot, sandy and incapable of sustaining crops. The consequences, she said, had pushed many households into poverty, forcing women to travel to neighbouring communities to purchase food that they previously produced themselves. Nwindee also described how polluted runoff entered streams and creeks, affecting drinking water and killing fish, crabs and other aquatic resources that once sustained local families. She expressed disappointment with the ongoing Ogoni cleanup, alleging that some remediation activities had failed to address the actual contamination and that certain contractors abandoned projects without completing the work. “We are not seeing the genuine cleanup that will bring relief to our people. They are not interested in our health; they are interested in the money,” she lamented. Another woman, Lekia Nsoo of Bunu community in Tai LGA, called on the authorities to engage experienced environmental experts, ensure proper remediation and subject contractors to effective monitoring and accountability. The community engagement aligns with RDI’s earlier training of female journalists in Port Harcourt on the theme: ‘Empowering Women Journalists for Effective Reporting of Extractive Impacts in Nigeria’. At the training, RDI and other resource persons challenged female journalists to investigate the disproportionate effects of oil pollution, gas flaring and climate change on women, particularly their health, reproductive wellbeing, food security and livelihoods. The initiative stressed that women’s experiences must occupy a central place in environmental reporting, policy discussions and interventions in oil-producing communities. RDI’s engagements seek to ensure that the experiences of women in affected communities are not merely documented but translated into sustained advocacy, accountability and meaningful environmental justice.