Hot Source.Begins compensation process
Blessing Ibunge in Port Harcourt
The Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project (HYPREP) has taken its mangrove restoration project in Ogoni shoreline communities further by implementing measures geared towards protecting the new mangroves.
The mangrove restoration project, which is part of the processes of the oil spill clean-up exercise recommended by the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP), is meant to restore the bio-diversity eco-system destroyed in the course of years of oil exploration in Ogoniland.
However, locals in the Ogoni shoreline communities, like their counterparts in other riverine communities in Rivers State, see the mangrove trees as a source of fuel, cutting and using them as firewood to cook, a development HYPREP fears could endanger the newly restored mangrove flora if not checked.
As a preventive measure, HYPREP, yesterday, presented clean energy cooking stoves to 100 residents of eight communities in Gokana, one of the four Local Government Areas in Ogoni, as alternative cooking facilities.
The stoves were presented to the beneficiaries at the HYPREP liaison office at the Gokana council headquarters.
HYPREP Project Coordinator, Prof. Nenibarini Zabbey, represented at the occasion by the agency’s legal adviser, Ichibor Joseph, said the stove distribution was a pilot scheme by HYPREP to see if stoves could replace wood as a source of fuel for the people of the shoreline communities in Gokana.
“It’s actually part of our pilot scheme to distribute stoves to citizens of the community. Basically, it’s part of our pilot projects to maintain our restoration project.
You’re aware that we’re driving the mangrove project across Ogoni Land. So we’re test-running this project to see how best stoves can replace wood and see how, moving forward, whether we we can adopt this or look for better alternatives,” he explained.
Mangrove restoration officer, HYPREP, Uche Izuchukwu, said the agency had embarked on mangrove restoration since January 2024, noting that the clean energy stove distribution was aimed at sustaining the restoration project.
“Even though some of our mangroves have started developing, we noticed the natural mangroves around them, people going there to cut them and use them as firewood.
“Part of what we’re doing here today is conservation and sustainability. We’re trying to see how to stop the cutting of our mangroves for firewood because very soon some of these mangroves will be ready and they will be matured enough to be used for firewood,” he also explained.
Most of the recipients of the clean energy cooking stoves thanked HYPREP for the initiative which they said would help reduce the exposure of their eyes to smoke.
One of them, Lezi Lene, said: “I am very happy because we have been using firewood to cook and the thing is really affecting us, especially our grandmothers, based on their eye issues. So using this stove will help improve their eye sight.”
Meanwhile, HYPREP has started paying compensation to those affected by the Ogoni Power project. They carried out verification for some of the compensation beneficiaries on Thursday at the HYPREP liaison office in Gokana.
