NIGERIA NATIONAL TOBACCO CONTROL BILL: ERA flays BAT’s smoking party

NIGERIA NATIONAL TOBACCO CONTROL BILL: ERA flays BAT’s smoking party: "THE decision of the British America Tobacco Nigeria (BATN) to carry on with secret smoking parties where underage persons are conscripted ..."

Petrol pipelines pollute water boreholes in Lagos community

We received a distressed SMS  from  a resident in Diamond Estate, Idimu- Isheri Local Council Developement Area(LCDA) in  Lagos complaining of how petrol pipelines pollute their water boreholes.  ERA monitors visited the estate and this is the report.

Title:  Petrol pipelines pollute water boreholes in Lagos community

Location: Diamond Estate, Idimu-Isheri Olofin Local Council Development

Area (LCDA) Lagos State

 Date: February 5, 2010
 By: Philip Jakpor and Tunji Buhari

 HIGHLIGHTS

• Water sources remain polluted two years after incident was first
recorded
• Boreholes in affected estate clamped, no alternative provided for owners
• NNPC denies responsibility, schemes to evade liability.
ERA/FoEN monitors visited Diamond Estate, a prototype housing property with about 550 houses located along Iyana Iba-Igando Expressway in Idimu-Isheri Olofin Local Council Development Area (LCDA) on February 4 and 5, 2010 in response to a Save Our Soul (SOS) received on ERA’s dedicated green lines.
Diamond Estate is sandwiched between Solous –a designated dumpsite in
Lagos, and Isheri, a very busy link to Ikotun area of the state.
The Genesis

When ERA/FoEN fact-finding team visited the estate on two occasions, it was reliably informed by affected residents that the discovery of petrol gushing from the taps powered by water pumping machines started with occupants of plots in a particular section of the estate’s phase two in October 2008. This happened when the homeowners moved in and started taking steps to provide themselves with potable water.

The occupants had initially thought the petrol which was in small quantity but very visible in the water would finally stop. But alas, it did not.
Rather, the quantity increased significantly and posed a grave danger to the owners of the plots as they feared any careless spark may ignite an explosion.

Jemima Ayangba, wife of one of the affected homeowners told ERA/FoEN that before the Petroleum Products Marketing Company (PPMC) asked affected plots to stop using their boreholes in January this year, anytime the household pumped water, the smell of petrol hung so thick that a young man that visited the family and struck a match to light his cigarette actually triggered a minor incident.

Monitors confirmed that at the last count, about 50 houses recorded cases of petrol pumped straight from the ground.

PPMC Denies Culpability
It was learnt that several complaints to the PPMC on the dangers posed by the incidences of petrol coming from the taps were not acknowledged by the agency. When the complaints continued to pour in, what had seemed like aresponse from the agency by way of sending its officials to sample the polluted boreholes turned out to be an attempt to fool the property owners.

On the first occasion in December 2009 when three PPMC officials visited, it was learnt that they flatly told the residents that the nearest pipeline to the estate was in Iyana Ipaja, a 20-minute drive from Idimu-Isheri where the estate is located. They argued that it was not possible that any pipeline traversed underneath the estate. On that occasion, they only took samples from a few buildings and left.

When a second team came to the estate without giving the result of the samples the earlier team collected, the affected property owners decided to give them samples from their individual boreholes and tanks which they were subsequently told to stop using.

According to Ademola Omoboriowo, an inhabitant, “When they came in January we were skeptical and insisted on getting a more concrete result so we took samples of water in our individual tanks and presented to them again to do an analysis but they out rightly rejected the samples. Instead, they told us that there were no pipes buried in the earth fromwhere petrol could gush out. They told us not to use the boreholes to pump water assuring that the situation would soon normalize.”

He explained that when some of the property owners threatened to sue, the PPMC officials told them that suing was a futile exercise as nothing could be achieved through that means. That was the last they heard from the agency.

ERA/FoEN gathered that until the PPMC told the concerned land owners to stop using their boreholes, the quantity of petrol coming from a particular borehole was so much that the owners started using the contents
to power their electric generating set.

Omoboriowo took the ERA team round some of the impacted buildings where the occupants showed their pumping machines and tanks that were damaged by the petrol that corroded vital elements.

Observation
It is also noteworthy that apart from the petrol-in-the-borehole saga, residents also suffer from an acrid stench emanating from a nearby dump, the ‘Solous Dumpsite’, managed by the Lagos State Waste Management Authority (LAWMA).

The offensive odour from the open dumpsite with smoldering wastes worsens whenever it rains, forcing residents to lock their windows and remain indoors. It is also feared that because of the topography of the region, poisonous chemicals dumped at the site may have also leached into ground water furthering endangering the occupants of the estate.

Testimonies
“It is not just all about collecting samples and pretending as if all is well. PPMC officials came here and lied to us that there was no pipeline underneath our plots but they have refused to tell us how refined petrol found its way into our water source. It is as bad as us becoming jittery when striking a match to even cook in our homes”- James Odeduan, resident
“We need clean water for drinking and other uses. PPMC said that all will soon be well after taking samples in January but this is nearly four weeks after and nothing has changed. Now we depend on godly neighbors that were not affected for water but we cannot stretch our luck too far because they will deny us access whenever they feel we are using up too much of their water” -Adeniji Jaiyeola, resident

“We are still waiting for PPMC to give us an alternative to the sources of water we have because it was their pipelines that polluted our water. At a point my household was using the water to bath but when we suddenly
started having rashes and itching we had to stop. Even my baby that was barely a year old also suffered rashes all over his body. We now depend on the goodwill of other homeowners that are not affected for water for bathing and other uses. How long will this continue?” - Mrs Adenike Jaiyeola, nursing mother and occupant


ERA’s Recommendations/Demands
• The PPMC should take immediate steps to trace and clamp the spill in the estate and halt the pollution of ground water in the area.
• The PPMC should take steps to detoxify the area.
• Impacted households should be relocated and compensated
• PPMC should be compelled to out regular integrity checks on al NNPC facilities throughout the federation
• The Federal Government should ensure that NNPC acts responsibly and adheres to internationally accepted standards. Failure by its subsidiary the PPMC to clamp the spill in the estate may lead to explosions in the near future.
• The ‘Solous Dumpsite’ should be closed or properly engineered, built and run to internationally accepted standard to safeguard the health of residents in the area.

ERA Mobile Advocacy

Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Member Spotlight: Environmental Rights Action in Nigeria 

This month Sokari interviews Tunji Buhari who is an Environmental Campaign Worker for Environmental Rights Action, Friends of the Earth Nigeria. He is based in Lagos and has been working with ERA on their Anti-Tobacco campaign. 

Sokari: The Anti-Tobacco campaign in Nigeria is fairly new. Can you give us some background on the campaign? When it started and why at that particular time?

Tunji: Tobacco is the only known product that kills half of its users when used as prescribed by the manufacturer. It kills over 10,000 persons a day and 4.5 million people a year. Sadly, 70percent of this figure is from developing countries. If the current trends continue, the figure is anticipated to rise to 10million a year by 2030. In Nigeria, Commercial growing of tobacco started in 1934 when British American Tobacco (BAT) decided to source tobacco leaf locally in preparation for the establishment of a cigarette plant in Ibadan in 1937. BAT has been a part owner of the moribund Nigeria Tobacco Company(NTC). Tobacco cultivation first started in Ogbomosho, Iseyin and Ago Are, all in the old Oyo State, before spreading to the Northern part of the country. But before the BAT onslaught, tobacco growing in the country was at its lowest.

On September 24, 2001 at an event dubbed the Nigerian Investment Summit held at park Lane Hotel London, British American Tobacco (BAT) signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Federal Government of Nigeria to build a USD150 million ultra modern cigarette manufacturing plant in Ibadan, Oyo State, South West Nigeria At the event, the Nigerian government and the tobacco mogul reached a consummated agreement for the removal of all barriers to BAT's war on public health and the globalization of death, poverty and diseases.

In the calculation of BAT strategists, the Nigerian market is the most crucial in Africa for the company to survive. The anti-tobacco policies of its home country and those being introduced by the European Union were suffocating BAT. In their desperation to explore Nigeria's huge market possibilities, the tobacco giants have facilitated massive smuggling, introduced sophisticated advertisement and overnwhelming marketing gimmicks.

Tobacco, in addition to being a public health disaster, exerts negative impact on national development, the economy, environment and social well-being of persons. It is a purveyor of poverty by promoting irrational allocation of resources. It also compounds third world economic problems as the short term benefits of the whole tobacco trade go only into the vaults of western business moguls. The anti- tobacco project of the Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth, Nigeria (ERA) is a resistance to the contrivance of tobacco transnational led by British American Tobacco (BAT) to reduce Nigeria to a haven of rejected products and its people to pawns on the chessboard of corporations. The anti-tobacco campaign takes root in ERA's mission of exposing negative corporate practices and facilitating the enactment of effective policies for sustainable development. And in the tobacco case, policies that will create the needed supportive environment to enable Nigerians live healthy lives and be protected from the greed of global death merchants. 

Sokari: What is the aim of the campaign and how does it relate to other environmental issues in Nigeria?

The aim of the campaign is to protect present and future generations from the devastating health, social, environmental and economic consequences of tobacco consumption and exposure to tobacco smoke by promoting the national tobacco control bill in the parliament in order to reduce continually and substantially the prevalence of tobacco use and exposure to tobacco smoke Every aspect of cigarette production is a contributory factor to environmental degradation. Clearing of land for tobacco farming , cutting wood to cure leaves and for making paper for packaging cigarettes, leads to deforestation and other environmental blight. For the production of the "Flue-cured" tobacco, BAT's Training and Demonstration Centre in Iseyin, Oyo State, huge mass of wood dot all the curing barns in the facility. In curing tobacco leaves, they are first stacked on poles, where heat from the wood is directed at them over a minimum of one week period. Cutting of trees for tobacco curing accounts for 1.6 percent of loss around the world with most occurring in developing countries. Also some of the chemicals used in the cultivation of tobacco like, methybromide destroy the environment by killing nematodes and other soil organisms. Recently the capital Abuja was declared a "Smoke free zone". 

Sokari: How difficult has it been to achieve this - what sort of response did you get from the Federal Territory, the Federal Government and people respectively?

Tunji: On June 1, 2008, the Federal Capital Territory declared all public places smoke free. Abuja is going smoke free is as a result of our work and commitment over the past years to ensure that everyone breaths a safer air. The need to protect the non smoking public from the dangers associated with cigarette smoking makes it necessary for the enforcement of the ban on smoking in public places. There is evidence that shows that exposure to Second Hand Smoke can caused diseases and death. Second Hand Smoke is a combination of the smoke which a smoker exhales and the one that comes out of the burning end of a cigarette. This Second Hand smoke is also known as the Environmental Tobacco smoke (ETS) or Passive smoking. Tobacco is a complex mixture of about 4,000 cancer causing chemicals that are extremely harmful to the body. It has also been confirmed that for every eight smoker who die, one innocent bystander also dies from second hand smoke and if one is exposed to second hand smoke for about 120minutes, then the person must have smoked and equivalent of four cigarettes. Second Hand Smoke is as deadly as the real tobacco smoke.. Because of these negative effects of smoking on Non-Smokers the smoke free Abuja will put public health above profits made from selling cigarettes. It will reduce the rate of smoking especially among the young and underage people who are actually the target of the tobacco companies.. Smoke free public places will make the environment cleaner and residents can breathe safer air. The benefits of also going smoke free will help towards achieving the Millennium Development Goal(MDG) of halving poverty by 2015. Because money spent on tobacco products will help provide food and shelter for families.

So far so good, the responses and support from the Federal Capital Territory, Federal Government has been very encouraging. And also the massive media enlightment campaign to inform residents about the enforcement has also be commendable. 

Sokari: What technologies such as the internet and mobile phones have you used in the tobacco campaign and how effective have they been?

Tunji: ERA have been using internet and mobile phones in campaign and launch her Anti-Tobacco Campaign goes on mobile phones last year.

The introduction of mobile phones into ERA tobacco campaign project came after the participation in a mobile activists workshop in Nairobi, Kenya on how to use ICT to press for a policy change. The mobile phone introduction is part of ERA's culture of providing hidden facts behind corporate maneuvers so that Nigerian policy makers can make informed decisions. It is to also create awareness about the hazards of smoking to Nigerians through SMS and also sending some tips to smokers on how to kick out the habit of smoking.

In the same vein, ERA has set up a hotline anti-tobacco campaign which is toll free for all Nigerians to ask question and receive feedback on the dangers of smoking.. The hotline is designed to answer questions on the dangers of tobacco use through SMS. 

Sokari: What lessons have you learned about using mobile phones as a campaigning tool?

Tunji: Clearly, Mobile Phones have played a key role in the tobacco control as a means of communication about the tobacco epidemic in an accurate, realistic and less expensive way.

Mobile phone has been used to create awareness about the hazards of smoking to Nigerians through SMS a tips to smokers on how to kick out the habit of smoking. The introduction of Mobile Phones has had a huge impact on the populace and judging from the numbers of phone calls and responses we have been receiving.

Sokari: ERA has for many years worked in the Niger Delta with local human rights activists and communities against the environmental crimes committed by oil multinationals. Have you thought of using mobile phones to document environmental abuses such as oil spillages and fires?

Tunji: Yes. In 2007 ERA launched a toll-free GREEN LINES to report ecological disasters in any community. If there is any ecological threat in a community whether e.g i pipeline ruptures, fires, pollution or any activity that threatens the environment. The GREEN LINES are toll- free . What SMS platform do you use for your environmental campaigns and how effective are they?

We use 2cheapsms platform for our campaign, which provides the simplest and easiest way to send individualized bulk messages (SMS) to a group of people. What other sectors, besides tobacco control and the mining / petroleum sector, is ERA involved with.

ERA Programme areas include:

Natural Resources and Communtiy Conservation, Energy and Mining, Environmental Education and Mining, Tobacco Control, Democracy Outreach, Trade and Development, Gender, Genetically Modified Organisms, Legal Resources, Media and Publications Nigeria has a very poor infrastructure and electricity provision is a major problem. What are the technological challenges you face as an organisation and as a staff member on a day to day basis due to the poor infrastructure.
The cost effectiveness- I mean the outrageous tariff charges of the mobile network provider.
Lack of electricity which we use to charge mobiles phones for our campaign are not available, we run on generator most time.
Also network problem which make it difficult to reach some of our local people.
Illiteracy: Judging from past experience, a lot of people don't know how to use their mobile phones to send and read sms in English.

Sokari: Why did you get into working on environmental issues?

Tunji: I have been hearing about the environmental degradation going in the Niger Delta for so many years but I was totally committed to the environmental issues when I read a book titled: WHERE VULTURES FEAST: 40 years of SHELL in the Niger Delta by Oronto Douglas and Ike Okonta. The book revealed so many human rights atrocities committed by the multinational oil companies especially Royal Dutch/Shell who is the operating company of the largest oil-producing joint venture in Nigeria. Shell accounts for some 50percent of oil production in the country, the bulk of it in the Niger Delta where the company opened its first well in 1958.

Ecological disaster

Massive and destructive excavation of soil extending beyond 1400hectar is done in Oreta in Igbogbo from 2am to 7pmdaily with 200 tipper trips. Ecological disaster iminent.

Sender: +23419517178