Underground leaks from a collapsed Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) pipeline has posed a serious environmental and health challenges to the Ekorinim community in Calabar Municipality of Cross River State.
The water from boreholes are polluted with benzene as a geophysics study carried out, has confirmed this
The 31 -year -old pipeline had collapsed following a heavy rainfall threatening some houses that are sitting on the fringes and valleys of the yawning gully
The NNPC should come and remove the pipeline as it has outlived its usefulness, a resident, Mr. John Eko, complained stating that the Ekorinim community has grown with lots of development and the pipeline now passes through the centre of the community.
Eko charged the NNPCL to remove the pipeline and build a jetty or use one near the tank farm which is just by the Calabar river.
He added that “the collapse of the pipeline has also caused a massive landslide crossing the Ekorinim 2 road and putting many houses in danger, including that of Governor Bassey Otu even though his own is about 200 metres away.”
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Commenting on the landslide incident, the General Secretary of the Ekorinim Town Council, Prince Emmanuel Bassey, blamed the NNPCL for abandoning the community saying, “there is negligence on the part of NNPC. We have made recommendations severally to them but nothing has been done”.
“The gully keeps eating wider and deeper and buildings and the entire community are at risk” urging the NNPCL to come and put the place in order as overtime houses there and beyond will be swallowed if not checked.
On pollution, he said that the “underground water pollution is affecting us because our boreholes water in that area of Ekorinim near the Army jetty are contaminated with benzene.
“We did some survey and testing and this was confirmed but NNPC is paying deft ears. We have even reported the matter to National Oil Spill Dictation and Response Agency (NOSDRA) but so far nothing positive has happened since their visit ” the community leader further said.
He added that, “there is total negligence on the part of NNPCL. There is no corporate social responsibility, no royalties , no jobs, contracts and scholarships. They no longer call for meetings with the community”.
Bassey said the about five kilometre pipeline was built as far back as 1994 when Ekorinim was largely forest and now the best option is to remove it because the pipeline is tearing through a heavily populated community.
