Communities along Nigeria’s Niger Delta have been put on alert following a major oil spill from the oil giant, Shell. The massive oil slick is making its way to the Nigerian coast, threatening local wildlife and massive pollution along the shore. Much of the available information about the spill comes from the company responsible for it, Royal Dutch Shell, which says less than 40,000 barrels have leaked so far. But Nigeria’s National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency says the spill could be three times as large. It comes just four months after the United Nations said it would take 30 years and around $1 billion for a small section of the delta to recover from environmental damage caused by Shell and other companies. We get an update from Nnimmo Bassey, executive director of Environmental Rights Action in Nigeria, which monitors spills around the country’s oil-rich southern delta.
The rush transcript for this segment was unavailable at the time of this posting, but the video segment is available here:
In other water-related news, a preliminary report on the nuclear disaster at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power facility has determined a lack of preparation and poor communication at top levels after disaster struck were among the failures that turned the nuclear accident into the worst atomic crisis in 25 years. The panel found Tokyo Electric Power, as well as state regulators, failed to sufficiently anticipate a massive tsunami. The panel also said poor communication between the government’s crisis management center and top officials delayed the use of a system that predicts the spread of radioactivity. This prevented more accurate evacuation orders. The government said last week it may take another seven years before the inside of the reactors can be checked due to high levels of radiation.