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The Niger Delta Today
Pollution - Spills
Pollution - Gas Flaring
Conflict

...the oil boom has become, to the people of the Niger Delta region, a doom, and years of official neglect has resulted in the Niger Delta Region of today being the epitome of hunger, poverty and injustice.
[See Rural & Remote Health Online - 2004]

Today, as you read this, the Nigerian government and the oil companies will gross over US$100million from pumping oil in the Niger Delta. Tomorrow will be around the same. Every day, Nigeria pumps around 2 million barrels of oil from the Niger Delta region. Increasingly, natural gas is also being exported from the Delta, adding to the millions in revenues generated every day.

The people of the Delta see this wealth being pumped from around them; the high security compounds of the foreign oil workers a reminder of the wealth being enjoyed by the few.

What they get in return, and what they have gotten for the past 47 years, is pitiful. Not only have they received little but they have been made even more impoverished by the pollution, corruption and conflict, that oil production has brought in their midst.

Nigeria is among the fifteen poorest countries in the world and 70% of its people live below the poverty line. Life expectancy is only 51.2 compared to the UK average of 78. In the Delta region, less than 30% of the people have access to safe water and the prevalence of HIV AIDs is the highest in Nigeria.

The International Monetary Fund calculated that Nigeria had earned over US$350billion in oil revenues between 1965 and 2000.

It was this misery in the face of such wealth that inspired Ken Saro-Wiwa to campaign against the oil companies and the government. He lost his life as a result. Today the misery continues.

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