After touring soil, water and air pollution sites and witnessing the significant remediation that the Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project of the Federal Ministry of Environment has done in Ogoniland, it has been difficult to forget an experience that almost led to asphyxiation.
So, when someone recently said that HYPREP, which accomplished such a great job, was a mere project, a temporary task with an expiry date, and not an agency created by law to last a long time, it sounded unbelievable.
It’s a little scary that the job of remediation of contaminated soil, water bodies and air that HYPREP is currently doing stands the chance of being discontinued, or fizzling out, as soon as the donated fund gets exhausted.
Consider what would have been the negative implications on the lives and livelihoods of Nigerians who now reap the benefits of the remediation and reclamation of polluted lands and water bodies that HYPREP has accomplished in about one decade.
HYPREP, set up in 2016 vide Federal Government Gazette Number 176, Volume 103, to implement United Nations Environment Programme’s environmental assessment report on Ogoniland, established its Project Coordination Office in February 2017.
