MANAGEMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH HAZARD IN THE OIL PRODUCING AREAS OF BAYELSA STATE: A CASE STUDY OF BRASS LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA

ABSTRACT

1956 oil was first struck in commercial qualities in Oloibiri in the present day Ogbia Local Government Area of Bayelsa State. Accordingly, the discovery of oil has brought economic prospect to the nation and environmental degradation to the lives of the people who lived around multinational oil companies, where oil exploration activities is carried out. Ø The Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) estimated that about 2, 300 cubic meters of crude oil are jettisoned into the environment yearly thus causing oil spills in Nigeria. Ø To guide this study, four research questions were raised while four hypotheses were formulated and tested. Ø The research design was survey method using simple random method four hundred (400) indigenes of Bayelsa were selected for the study. Ø The instrument for data collection were questionnaire and observation. Simple percentage was used to analyze the data obtained. Ø The data analysis revealed that oil spillage affects health of the people. Ø The agricultural output of the people are decreasing annually as a result of oil spillage in the environment destroying soil-fertility. Scarcity of water even when Bayelsa State is an island as a result of water pollution. In conclusion it reveals that nothing or less has been done to the suffering of the people of Bayelsa State. When there is an outbreak of oil spillage in the community. There is no potable water for the people when their source of drinking water is polluted they have no alternative of other source of drinking water.

CHAPTER ONE

1.0 INTRODUCTION

The World Health Organization (WHO) defined health as a state of complete physical, mental, social and spiritual well-being of individual and not merely the absence of diseases or infirmity (WHO, 1964). Ogbimi (2009) holds that an individual is aected by almost everything in the environment. Equally, health is the perfect state of the individual in his physical, mental, social and emotionally well being. Health is seen as an environmentally influenced state of well being, hence it becomes necessary to look at the health of people as directly influenced by their immediate environment. Environmental health is a branch of public health that is concerned with all aspect of the natural and physical environment which may affect human health. The World Health Organization (WHO) defined it as those aspects of the human body, (human health) and disease that are determined by factors in the environment (wikipedia, 2007).

The focus of environmental health has been the direct pathological agents and the effects in health and well being of the broad physical, psychological, social and aesthetic environment which include housing, urban development, land use and transportation. The scope of environmental health include hazardous materials, pollution, disaster, prehardness, food safety, waste management and occupational health. One aspect of interest to researchers is the environmental health as the impact of oil spills on the health of members in host communities where multinationals carry out huge oil drilling or exportation activities. An area with largest concentration of such facilities in the Niger Delta region in Nigeria. Alagoa (1999) and Ekiyor (2006) the Niger Delta covers 70, 000 km2 within wet lands. It is home to 20 million people and 40 dierent ethnic groups with diverse mangrove swamp forests, fresh water swamps, and low land rain forests. Dabbs (2006 however put it that the ecosystems as well as the individuals are at the receiving end of pollutants from oil spills and gas flares. Niger Delta has witnessed the poisoning of the waters of this country and destruction of vegetation and agricultural land by oil spills which occur during petroleum exploration. But since the discovery of the oil industry in Nigeria, more than thirty years ago, there has been no concerned and effective effort on the part of the government, let alone the oil operators to control environmental health hazards associated with the industry.

Sola (2002) expressed that in Lagos State today as well the riverine cities in Nigeria such as Bayelsa, the worst type of pollution is oil. In other words, he warned that potential pollution from the oil companies to land and water poses very serious problem to the oil producing areas. Estimate shows that 89 million barrels of petroleum were spilled into Niger Delta region between 1976 and 1996 (Nwilo, 2009). The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) puts the quantity of petroleum injected into the environment yearly at 2, 300 cubic meters of oil spills annually. These estimates raise grave concerns for the environmental health of host communities.