LITTLE has been done to clean up oil pollution in the Niger delta, either by Nigeria’s government or oil giant Shell, rights and environment groups said today.

Oil production has contaminated drinking water in at least 10 communities in the Ogoniland area.

Neither the Nigerian government nor Royal Dutch Shell’s Nigeria subsidiary have taken effective measures to restore the fouled environment, said Amnesty International, Friends of The Earth Europe, Centre for Environment Human Rights and Development, Environmental Rights Action and Platform.

An assessment of pollution in the oil-producing area was published in 2011 by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), which said it would take up to 30 years to clean up.

But the groups said that “in the three years since the UNEP study, the government of Nigeria and Shell had taken almost no meaningful action to implement its recommendations.”

They added that “even the emergency measures have only been partially implemented.”

Emergency water supplies were brought to communities affected by pollution. 

But the communities say the supplies are “erratic,” often insufficient and the water sometimes “smelled bad and is unpleasant to drink.”

In its earlier study UNEP gave several examples of contaminated water and land, including in western Ogoniland. 

“Families are drinking water from wells contaminated with benzene — a known carcinogen — at levels over 900 times above World Health Organisation guidelines,” said UNEP.

In July 2012 the government created the Hydrocarbon Pollution Restoration Project to implement the UN recommendations. 

But “none of the NGOs monitoring UNEP implementation are aware of any action to meet this commitment,” the groups said.

In January 2013 Shell requested approval to decommission equipment in Ogoniland but “Shell’s description of what has been achieved amounts to almost no action whatever,” the groups said.

“The people of Ogoniland continue to suffer the effects of 50 years of an oil industry which has polluted their land, air and water.

“Only some of the emergency measures have been implemented — and then only partially.”

The groups accused Shell of putting the blame on oil theft to avoid acting on the UN report.