Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project, HYPREP, said it has begun restoration of mangroves in the ongoing remediation of Ogoni environment. HYPREP disclosed that over 1,416 hectares of mangroves in Ogoni would be restored in compliance with the recommendations of the United Nation Environment Programme, UNEP. The Project Coordinator, HYPREP, Dr Ferdinand Giadom, who spoke during a workshop on Environmental Remediation tagged, “Detailed Site Characterisation, Remediation Strategies & Framework Development”, yesterday in Port Harcourt, stated that the Project was in the 2021 proposed work plan of the Ministry of Environment.
Giadom expressed that the workshop was to relate to key stakeholders on the progress of work so far, maintaining that HYPREP is focused primarily on three key areas of site assessment, shoreline clean-up assessment techniques and remediation and how to develop a framework for their implementation. The PC said that the assessed grids are along shorelines, channels, mud flats and degraded mangrove platforms, noting that the Pre-SCAT activities affected Ogoni coastal communities in Gokana, Khana, Tai and Eleme Councils of Rivers State. Giadom hinted that the SCAT Team has commenced field activities at B-Dere and K-Dere both in Gokana and assessed a total of three hundred and fifty-one(351) grids covering an area of about 1,416 hectares. He said “we have commenced the implementation of the UNEP recommendations with regards to mangrove restoration. The Project in the 2021 work plan proposed to carry out Pre-SCAT activities in affected Ogoni coastal communities in Gokana, Khana, Tai and Eleme Local Government Areas,” he said.
