Oil Spills on the Niger Delta Can Cause a Severe Impact on People That Depend on It

Here, this man really affected by the Niger, is showing how the animals are dying.  https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2016/jun/02/niger-delta-oil-spill-clean-up-launched-ogoniland-communities-1bn

Recently, oil companies have extracted a lot of oil from the Niger River delta, but there have been many spills that have not been reported and are affecting many animals and people. “I have seen no government project here in years. There has been nothing to create jobs. People suffer diseases related to hydrocarbons and pollution. The situation is terrible,” said Lazarus Tamana, European coordinator of the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni people. This is a description of how is the way of life on the Niger delta, how the government won’t do anything to the river even though it's very contaminated and is killing the region. It also shows how the people, because they have no water, are forced to drink the river's water that is full of oil and give many diseases that are related to hydrocarbons and the pollution itself.  The Niger delta contamination affects all living things that depend on it because they are drinking the oil, and it also affects the oil companies that extract the oil from the Niger delta because of oil spills.

Oil spills in the Niger River

“Between 1976 and 2001 there were nearly 7,000 incidents involving oil spills in which most of the oil was never recovered , and an average of 240,000 barrels a year are spilled into the Niger delta, often because mechanical failure or oil pirates.” (Bryan Walsh). This demonstrates that companies are spilling oil into the Niger delta, but they are not doing anything even though they are losing much of their product and they can't get it back. These spills cause the contamination that made the UN become involved in this problem. The UN engineers, oil companies and the government, will try to build a factory to process and clean contaminated soil. The construction of this factory is really expensive; that means that the companies are going to lose a lot of money, like the government because they haven't done anything. In addition, they decided to do a massive replanting of the contaminated mangroves, which is also a lot of money.    

Oil’s Effects on Humans and Animals Organisms

The Niger delta is full of oil, oil recently extracted from underground. If the processed oil is bad for the organisms, is non-processed oil bad for the organisms? Oil can harm living things because it contains chemicals that have negative effects on living things. This can affect organisms both inside the body by digesting it or inhaling it, and from outside of the body through the skin and eye irritation. Oil can also close gills of  some small species of fish or invertebrates and cut feathers and fur, reducing birds and other animals’ ability to maintain their body temperatures. But the oil itself isn’t the only way that oil affects people and animals. When oil is spilled in some parts, clean up operations are sent. In these operations many people are forced to leave their homes, and the majority are poor, so they don't have anywhere to go. Also animals in these operations are equally forced to leave their homes, but they are already bad because of the oil, so they die as soon as they get out. “Since most oils float, the creatures most affected by oil are animals like sea otters and seabirds that are found on the sea surface or on shorelines if the oil comes ashore. During most oil spills, seabirds are harmed and killed in greater numbers than other kinds of creatures. Sea otters can easily be harmed by oil, since their ability to stay warm depends on their fur remaining clean. If oil remains on a beach for a while, other creatures, such as snails, clams, and terrestrial animals may suffer.” This quote from the Office of Response and Restoration shows us what are the animals that are most affected and why.

Government’s Losses

Governments of the Niger delta haven’t done anything, even though they are losing lives from the citizens, losing their animals and the green parts such as mangroves and jungles, and losing money everyday because of the spills of their oil. Oil companies are spilling oil, the country's oil, when the government could extract that oil to the benefit of the country. They are losing many money. Also, governments aren’t watching what are doing to the poor people that depend on the river because of the fishes and the water so they can survive. The jungles and the mangroves from that region are really beautiful, and the countries are losing them. Also they aren’t watching the animals’ lives. They, just like the people, are depending on the river that is full of oil and affects their organisms. The Governments don’t see how they are losing their nature, even though it's really beautiful and represents the country. Governments should see this and analyze it, because they are losing important things that help them maintain more money to have economic stabilization and also losing things like mangroves that symbolizes the the beauty of the country.

In conclusion, the Niger river contamination affects all living things that surround it, not only because of the oil, also because the cleaning processes. Niger river contains many oil that affects our organism by the amount of hydrocarbons and the its poisonous. Also the clean up operations are really bad because make many people leave their home and let them with nothing. Governments have not seen the damage their are doing and the things they are losing. I think the world should come together so they talk about the contamination and put a solution, because if the contamination stays the way it is, maybe the world is going to change in a dramatic way and the Earth isn’t going to be like it is or it was.