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DAM-L Opposition to plans to dredge Niger River/LS (fwd)
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Date: Tue, 06 Nov 2001 11:24:15 -0800
To: irn-safrica@netvista.net
From: Ryan Hoover <ryan@irn.org>
Subject: Opposition to plans to dredge Niger River/LS
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Irin Focus On Plans to Dredge Major Rivers
UN Integrated Regional Information Networks
November 5, 2001
Posted to the web November 5, 2001
This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations
Plans to dredge two major waterways to improve long-neglected river
transport in Nigeria have placed the government on a collision course with
environmentalists and several riverine communities.
Critics of the plans are fearful of the effects dredging the rivers Niger
and Benue could have on communities and the environment in downstream
areas, including the volatile Niger Delta.
The two waterways form Nigeria's main river system. The Niger starts in
Guinea's Fouta Djalon mountains, courses through most of West Africa, then
enters Nigeria from the northwest on its way to the Atlantic Ocean. The
Benue, which begins in the Cameroonian Highlands to the east, joins the
Niger at Lokoja in central Nigeria.
Three years ago, the Nigerian government decided to improve river transport
by dredging the two waterways using money from the Petroleum Trust Fund
(PTF). The fund is a special facility set up by late de facto president
General Sani Abacha to use additional earnings from the sale of petroleum
products for infrastructural development.
When, in 1998, the PTF announced that it had awarded a contract to dredge
the rivers from central Nigeria to the Niger Delta, several environmental
groups objected. They pointed out that no environmental impact assessment
(EIA) had been conducted as required by a 1992 law. Many communities along
the proposed dredging route also expressed concern about the likely adverse
impact on their livelihoods and settlements.
After Abacha's death, his successors adopted the project, but decided to
conduct EIAs. Their results were published and interest groups and
communities were asked to comment and raise objections where necessary.
Based on the EIAs, the government declared the dredging of the rivers
imperative.
"The federal government sees the two rivers as great treasures which should
be protected," the minister of state for transport, Isa Yuguda, told
journalists recently. "Both rivers Niger and Benue are fast drying up
because they are almost silted and studies have shown that they may
completely dry up in the next 20 to 25 years if concerted efforts are not
made to safeguard them."
He said President Olusegun Obasanjo's government had decided to do
everything possible to safeguard the two rivers. Dredging, he said, would
help to do this and to improve navigation - and thereby transport as a
whole - in Nigeria.
Several upstream communities appeared to welcome the development. On the
other hand, attempts to set up dredging equipment in the Niger Delta have
been resisted. The Federal Inland Waterways Authority (FIWA), which
oversees the project, said both the contractor, Inter-Continental Port
Limited, and its officials were chased away from a number of Niger Delta
communities when they tried to put dredging equipment in place. This has
created a setting for violence should the government decide to use the
security forces to enforce its will.
Environmental Rights Action (ERA), a Nigerian group affiliated to Friends
of the Earth, contends that the EIAs conducted on the dredging project were
done as an afterthought. Moreover, it says, the assessments were aimed at
legitimising a fait accompli and were never intended to ask genuine
questions about the likely adverse impacts on the environment.
ERA says dredging would increase the speed at which water flows into the
Delta, aggravating the erosion of river banks and increasing the incidence
of flooding.
"Who will benefit from the dredging? Certainly not the people of the Niger
Delta as dredging will result in unnatural drainage, fast-moving water
bodies and erosion," ERA spokesman Doifie Ola told IRIN. "This will impact
on the wetlands and more negatively on poor people. Homes, communities,
fishing grounds, forests and farmlands may go with the possible floods."
According to ERA, the destructive impact of dams built on the two rivers is
yet to be quantified. It is felt each year at the peak of the rainy season
when sluice gates are opened, often without warning, and downstream
communities are swept away by flash floods. Such floods kill many people
while destroying homes and farmland. The group argues therefore that, as it
stands, the dredging plan is ecologically unsustainable.
FIWA officials admit that the original dredging plan they submitted to the
Ministry of Transport was hijacked and truncated by the PTF in its hurry to
have the project executed. A senior official told IRIN that the original
thinking included developing river ports in communities along the two
rivers as part of an integrated inland waterways development programme.
"But this aspect was dropped by the PTF," he said. "And what's the point in
dredging the rivers if there will be no river ports to enable the people to
make the best use of improved navigation? There is a real need to rethink
the entire project."
Many people in the Niger Delta believe that the dredging project is aimed
mainly at making it easier for oil multinationals to move heavy equipment
to locations where they want to operate. They also say past experience
justifies their opposition.
Obudu Otobo, a Niger Delta activist, said the dredging of a water channel
turned his hometown, Aleibiri, into an island. "The purpose of the dredging
was to enable an oil company move a rig to a drilling location, but the
consequences have included the introduction of excess water into the area,"
he told IRIN. "Farmlands are now permanently flooded, severely curtailing
farming activities."
Yuguda said the improvement of navigation on the rivers would be a useful
complement to the development of a railway line for transporting materials
between steel complexes at Ajaokuta, on the bank of the Niger in central
Nigeria, and Aladja, near the Niger Delta oil town of Warri. He said
because dredging was of "overwhelming importance to this huge economic
investment" it was necessary to examine all possibilities of ending
"communal interference in the dredging project".
Whether this will be achieved by peaceful persuasion or force remains to be
seen.
Ryan Hoover
Africa Campaigns
International Rivers Network
1847 Berkeley Way
Berkeley, CA 94703
USA
Phone: (510) 848-1155 Fax: (510) 848-1008
www.irn.org
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