Special Report
When Environmental Racism Sways [Part 2]: Despite Italy’s OECD intervention, Nigeria community continues to lament Eni blockage, causing climate crisis
By Elfredah Kevin-Alerechi and Kevin Woke
On July 18, 2019, Italy’s Eni signed a settlement agreement with its host community in the Aggah community near the Mgbede oil well in front of Italy’s OECD National Contact Point, which promotes policies that improve people’s economic and social well-being. The community has accused the company of blocking its waterways, causing floods that displaced people on a recurrent basis.
Every year, farmer Charity Alimezhie moves her six children to a nearby village for four months before returning to her home in Aggah, Rivers State, to clean up the debris from the Eni/Agip-allegedly-caused flood and start a new life. This has become a terrific annual ritual for her and her family during the rainy season of June and July.
Whenever the rainy season draws closer, her mind skips a thought because every little rain brings flooding, as she would not only have her home submerged by the flood but also have all her cassava crops taken over and destroyed.
On her way back from the farm, Alimezhie was approached with a sack bag full of cassava tubers. Even though her sack bag is filled with cassava, she appears unhappy, explaining that her crops have been stunted due to the constant flooding.
Her house and properties were not the only things that were destroyed by the flood; her farm crops were also destroyed, and she blamed the Nigerian Agip oil company, a subsidiary of Italy’s Eni, for blocking the waterways that had destroyed her crops.
Alimehzie said dejectedly, “Eni/Agip is to blame for the flood.” They obstructed the waterway, and every drop of rain caused flooding.
“The flood submerges all my cassava crops and stems, and most times, because of the flood, I will have to uproot the cassava prematurely, ” she explained further in her local dialect, showing the reporters some black-skin premature cassava she had uprooted from her farm.
For more than four decades, the Aggah community has been terrified of the rainy season because their homes flood. Locals were ecstatic when the OECD published the terms of a settlement reached between Eni and the Aggah community in a case referred to the NCP on December 15, 2017, by the Egbema Voice of Freedom (EVF) and its representatives, Advocates for Community Alternatives (ACA) and Chima Williams & Associates (CWA). The flood was said to have been caused by Eni drainages.
However, despite the agreement signed by Eni, the drainage system intended to control the flow of water is not serving its purpose, according to several residents who complained to the reporters.
According to Akunawa Felix, a community leader in Aggah, water flowed into the Oloshiri river whenever it rained in the community before Eni existed. However, when the company arrived and built their access road, they blocked the waterway.
Felix continued: “Whenever it rains, the community gets flooded.
“We are not talking about floods caused by natural disasters, but the floods that comes every year that are caused by the company, Eni/Agip, because of the blockage.”
The company constructed a very high embankment, according to Alexandra Oba, another prominent member of the Aggah community, to prevent flooding of the road that their employees used to access their oil well heads and equipment. As a result, the road rises significantly above the natural water right of way. Since 1966, the disturbance has resulted in “high floods, which prompted us to press the company to remove the blockage, but to no avail.”
A young local child died due to the flooding caused by the company, and according to Oba, the boy’s autopsy determined that the flood was the cause of death. Eni/Agip constructed twelve culverts, none of which ever channelled water into the Oloshi River as it existed prior to the company’s existence. Oba stated that the issue is now more severe than it was in the past because water is now entering people’s homes.
“The culvert carries water from another area to this area and from this village to another, and there is nowhere it will discharge the water,” he said, pointing to the culverts in the Aggah community.
The boy named [Obinna Ibika] fell into the company’s uncovered waste pit while returning from the farm amid a flood that had engulfed the entire area. A few days later, after the flood had subsided, his remains were discovered, according to another community leader, Nicholas Evaristus.
Did Eni keep to Italy’s OECD agreement?
According to the reports, one of the vital aspects of the agreement Eni signed with its host community in front of the OECD NCP, as seen by the reporters, required Eni to construct new culverts with drainage systems before the rainy season in 2019 and that a representative of the community would be involved in the process of determining the location and buildings of the drainage if the community deemed it necessary.Residents were relieved when Eni built the twelve new culverts because the flooding would stop, even though the company did not include locals in the construction. According to Evarstus Nicholas, the founder of Egbema Voice of Freedom, a local organisation fighting for environmental pollution and climate justice in the Aggah community, when the rain started a few weeks later, the level of areas flooded was higher than it used to be before the construction of the culverts.
Nicholas explained that the company failed to consult with community residents while building the culvert, only for residents to discover that the culvert was ineffective.
Nicholas said: “The company secretly built the drainages without consulting community members, and this was done two years after the settlement was signed, in defiance of the OECD NCP recommendation to build in 2019.
“None of the company’s newly built culverts are channelling water to the right place; instead, they continue to flood the community,” he added.
Although it was not raining when the reporters visited the community in July 2023, the culverts were seen in various locations, painted yellow and black, which indicates a combination of power, sophisticated energy, danger, and hazard now surrounded and covered by bushes, with some stagnant water in them.
Augustine Oluma, a surveyor with more than 35 years of experience and one of the EVF members who examined the company culverts, said he remembered finding a mistake while inspecting one of the company’s culverts. According to him, he informed the contractors of the error, but they ignored his concerns.
Oluma narrated his findings: “The culverts were not correctly done. “
“The culvert was supposed to pull out water from the community, but where the company placed the culvert, the ground is higher than the invented level of the culvert. “ There is no way the water will flow.
Orji Chukwudike, a civil engineer with 12 years of experience, was also one of the Egbema Voice of Freedom community members invited by Eni to monitor the culverts built by their contractors. According to him, the company paid him and the other four members of the Egbema Voice of Freedom to supervise the culvert. Still, during the supervision, they discovered that the contractors were building culverts rather than drainage culverts and that the constructed culverts did not correspond to the flood. “When we tried to advise the contractor on how to do the job, they refused to listen,” he says.
Chukwudike said: “Anytime we visit the site and tell the contractors what to do, they refuse and feel obliged to do what pleases their employers(Eni).
“The inlet and outlet were not functioning. Chukwudike explains that the inlet is where you take the water, and the outlet is where you take the flood out to discard the water in a place where it will not disturb anyone.
“However, they used a person’s farmland to empty the water, but the depth is insufficient.” The drainage is 150 million metres versus over 200 metres, and 150 metres of drainage will not go anywhere.”
Chukwudike further explained that after the drainage had been constructed, it was observed that the drainage was not functioning. “ We did a report, but the company refused to sign.
“But the company asked me to do a joint report with their contractors, and we wrote our findings, only to see that what we wrote differed from the final report the company brought.
“We told them that it is not what we wrote,’’ Chukwudike added.
When the process began, Jonathan Kaufman, Executive Director of Advocates for Community Alternatives, helped the Aggah Community take its case to Italy, believing that NAOC’s parent company, Eni, would not find it difficult to relieve the flooding in Aggah by constructing proper drainage systems.
Kaufman said, “The settlement with Eni calls for Eni and NAOC to lift the floods at Aggah by building culverts and, if necessary, other drainage systems. But the flooding continues, and not just because they built sub-standard culverts. They also refused to look at the overall problem and design a system that would actually drain away the floodwaters.
“Instead of solving the problem, Eni wasted their money and the community’s time and goodwill. There was a chance to do the right thing here, but instead, the people are still suffering and have lost any trust in Eni.”
“Eni cannot run away from its responsibility for lifting the flooding in Aggah, even if they sell their shares in NAOC to Oando. Eni itself signed the settlement agreement that concluded the OECD NCP process, so all the obligations spelled out in that agreement will stay with Eni, no matter what happens to Eni’s Nigerian operations.”
Domenico Spina of Eni Reference Press Office Upstream denied the company duped Aggah community members into signing to satisfy the built culvert.
Health Implications
Due to the constant flooding that was alleged to have been caused by the Eni blockage, some community members claimed to have suffered from malaria.
Ekeigbo Chukwudi, community chief, said he constantly suffers from malaria due to the several bites from mosquitoes that are in the community because of the flood. Three medical test results he shared confirmed he suffers from malaria.
Chukwudi said: “Every month, I usually have malaria, and I go to the hospital every time, and this is because of the flood caused by ENi because the flood brought mosquitoes that were affecting us.
“I am not saying that Eni/Agip brought mosquitoes from Milan, but what I am saying is that the cause of this malaria and typhoid affecting us is because of the environment they [Eni] polluted that brought this mosquito.
According to Sandra Uba, a local community nurse, the majority of people who come for treatment are always sick with malaria. She said the company culverts, which caused the flood to bring mosquitoes, ended up biting residents and causing malaria.
Flooding, according to research, can increase mosquito and mosquito bites, as well as cause mosquito-borne diseases. The accumulation of water from heavy rainfall and receding floodwaters can create ideal conditions for the proliferation of mosquitoes, according to the public health unit of the Queensland government.
Struggling Eni contractors
Aggah community in Rivers State is not the only community where Eni activities have caused flooding. The people of Kwale and Asemoku in Delta State also suffered flooding following the company’s blockage in a bid to protect its pipe, said Lucky Ukwosah, a contractor hired by Eni to flow the blocked waterway.
According to Ukwosah, the company blocked waterways while constructing its pipelines, resulting in flooding in community environs, including farmland. After several complaints from local residents, Eni in 2013 invited Ukwosah and his team to clear up the blocked areas.
Ukwosah explained that when he visited the communities, he observed the hype of mud blocking the waterways that caused the flooding. Still, after opening the waterways, Eni failed to pay the contractors.
Ukwosah said: “From 2017 to 2023, after I finished my job, the company has not paid the remaining agreed balance.
“The company paid part payment of N1 million out of the 12 million agreed for the opening of the waterways. ” Since then, I have been chasing the company but nothing has been paid despite all the letters written.
Emmanuel Omuabor was also one of the contractors hired by Eni to open up its closed areas that were causing flooding. According to him, he has been clearing the company-blocked areas for more than ten years but since 2017, after the job awarded in 2013 was completed, the company failed to pay the agreed-upon sum.
Omuabor said: “My Contract agreement was N11 million, and the company paid only N1.1 million, and since 2017, they have not paid.”
“We weren’t mobilised to do the job, and I borrowed money from the money lenders,” he continued.
“I lost so many of my properties because I sold them to pay off the loan I took, but yet I am still owing the lender. “My challenge is that I can’t pay my four children’s fees anymore, and these lenders continue to harass me for their loans.
Documents cited show that several letters have been written to the company for payment for contractors and also sent to the government but all ended in deadlock and
Eni has owned several contractors since 2017; however, while some are struggling with health issues due to the company’s failure to pay their agreed debt, some have lost their lives. Letters seen by reporters show that the contractors have written several letters to the company seeking payment, including the names of the contractors being owed.
Favour Uzuokuame lost her father, one of the contractors Eni is allegedly to have owe. While her father was still alive, he was battling the company for his pay.
Prior to her father’s death, he promised to pay her and her siblings. While Eni was owing her father, her mother fell ill and had a kidney problem. due to the company’s failure to pay her father a contractor, he lost his wife.
Uzuokuame said: “During that period, my dad was still struggling to meet the company so that he can pay for her dialysis but all efforts from my dad to get his company from Eni were abortive.
“For now, I am in my year three and I barley feed and thinking of dropping out because I havent paid anything to continue.
“If I have like N500,000 I will be happy because I can return to school to care for my two siblings.
“I am begging Agip to release the money so that my siblings can go to school, and even my dad has not been buried,” she added.
Eni’s response to all allegations
When contacted, the company denied the allegations, claiming to have paid all contractors, claiming the contractors who are accusing the company of failure to pay the agreed fees to remove the company’s blocked areas where contractors of the “Niger Delta”.
The reporters asked Eni for proof to show the contractors had been paid. Also, they sent a list of the names of contractors and a letter written by the contractors’ lawyer to the company asking for the payment of their fees to Spina, Eni’s spokesperson.
Spina sent the proof to back his claims that contractors have been paid or confirm the names of contractors are the same as the contractors he is referring to, considering Eni has several contractors awarded to do a job.
Spina said: “Eni firmly rejects the allegation of causing a “climate crisis” as well as to be responsible for seasonal floods in Aggah.
“The Aggah Community area is naturally prone to perennial floodings due to its natural terrain and surrounding rivers, as well as the rest of the region. This is factual and well documented.
“The allegation dates back to 2017, following a complaint to OECD Contact Point by the complainant’s activist organisation Egbema Voice of freedom (EVF), alleging that some of NAOC facilities around Aggah community (namely access roads to well locations) were responsible for the flooding of the community. NAOC firmly rejected the allegations, but nonetheless agreed to join a mediation, non judicial process, conducted under the auspices of the National Contact Point in accordance with the relevant OECD guidelines, with a view to agree mutually acceptable measures in a spirit of cooperation, and concurred on the construction of additional culverts and drainages within the limited perimeter of the NAOC facilities identified in the complaint.
“The company constructed the agreed culverts and drainages, taking into account the suggestions of the complainants during joint inspections. During a post-construction review of the project by an independent environmental consultant, appointed by agreement of both parties, it was established that the culverts were effective in allowing water to traverse NAOC’s facilities.”
Speaking further, Eni noted that “The complainants produced their own self-serving report after the monitoring exercise with the environmental consultant which they unsuccessfully tried to compel the consultant and the company to sign.
“The complainants are not an accredited representative of the community. NAOC is in regular and constructive dialogue with the leadership of the Aggah community and has implemented several community development projects in the community through MOU with the community and other communities within Egbema clan where the community belongs. For instance, just a few days ago NAOC commissioned a palm oil plantation project to improve the economic welfare of the Egbema clan including Aggah community.
“Remarkably, the complainant – in addition to this Aggah community – also acts as agent of contractors in Niger Delta State who were allegedly not paid for job done. All relevant claims have been considered, and, where appropriate, payments were made.”
Read Part 1: INVESTIGATION: When Environmental Racism Sways, Part 1: Eni Oil Pipe Leak, a Knik Knot on Nigerian Host Communities’ Necks
This story is supported by JournalismFund Europe
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