DW
The Oruma community in Nigeria’s oil-rich Niger Delta region is still suffering from a spill in 2005 when oil leaked from a Shell pipeline onto farmland.
The crude oil leak caused extensive damage to local ecosystems, turning the lush forest — once the main source of income for farmers and fishers — into a contaminated landscape.
One of the fishponds, which used to teem with fish, has been neglected for many years because it no longer produces anything for the farmers. Moreover, a close look at the surface reveals that water still smells of crude oil.
“Even though we plant, the oil inside will surely kill the crops that we plant,” Chief Ernest Oginaba, a local farmer, told DW. “So we feel very bad. All these places are condemned, nobody can use it again.”
Nigeria is Africa’s biggest oil producer and churns out nearly 1 million barrels of crude every day…
