Posted: 04 March 2010
PANEL DISCUSSION ON: SHELL OIL AND HUMAN RIGHTS IN NIGERIA
The Niger Delta is one of the world’s 10 most important wetland and coastal marine ecosystems and is home to about 31 million people. Its huge oil deposits have been extracted for years by the Nigerian govenment and multinational oil companies such as Royal Dutch Shell. It is estimated that oil has generated an estimated $600 billion since the 1960s.
However, the majority of the Niger Delta population lives in extreme poverty without clean water or adequate health care [1]. Widespread pollution in the Niger Delta through oil spills, waste dumping, and gas flaring – an illegal and harmful practice of burning natural gas that is released when oil is extracted from the ground – is damaging people’s health, destroying livelihoods and contributing to violent conflict [2].