ABSTRACT
Oil spillage on agricultural land of farmers in Udu Local Government of Delta State is the focus of this study. The specific objectives of the work are to: Identify causes of oil spillage in the area and ascertain farmers’ perceived problem of oil spillage on their environment and agricultural activities, among others. The health hazards created by oil exploration and exploitation are covert and slow in action. They are not given the deserved attention in official documents in Nigeria, even as they can be major contributors to the disease burden in oil‑bearing communities. This study is an interpretation of the data reported in several published studies on crude oil spills in the Niger delta region, Nigeria. Materials and Methods: A manual and Internet search was conducted to extract quantitative data on the quantity of crude oil spilled; the concentrations of the pollutants in surface water, ground water, ambient air and plant and animal tissue; and the direct impact on human health and household food security. Results: An average of 240,000 barrels of crude oil are spilled in the Niger delta every year, mainly due to unknown causes (31.85%), third party activity (20.74%), and mechanical failure (17.04%). The spills contaminated the surface water, ground water, ambient air, and crops with hydrocarbons, including known carcinogens like polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon and benxo (a) pyrene, naturally occurring radioactive materials, and trace metals that were further bioaccumulated in some food crops. The oil spills could lead to a 60% reduction in household food security and were capable of reducing the ascorbic acid content of vegetables by as much as 36% and the crude protein content of cassava by 40%. These could result in a 24% increase in the prevalence of childhood malnutrition. Animal studies indicate that contact with Nigerian crude oil could be hemotoxic and hepatotoxic, and could cause infertility and cancer. Conclusions: The oil spills in the Niger delta region have acute and long‑term effects on human health. Material relief and immediate and long‑term medical care are recommended, irrespective of the cause of the spill, to ensure that the potential health effects of exposures to the spills are properly addressed. A multi-stage random sampling technique was used to select 60 contact farmers for the study. Data were collected by the use of questionnaire. Delta State which is one of the nine (9) States in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria, is greatly endowed with abundant natural resources and a weather which supports all year round agricultural production.
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
According to [8], about 50 percent of the active labour force is engaged in one form of agricultural activity or another, with yam, cassava, plantain, maize, cocoyam and vegetables as the predominant food crops in the area. However, owing to the hydrographic conditions of the State only a fraction of the land size is cultivated with crops. Cropping patterns are mainly sole cropping, mixed cropping and intercropping, while farming practices are traditional, and the use of crude implements such as hoe and cutlasses predominate. Agricultural production is on a small and subsistence scale, with small farm holdings. Mechanisation is on a very low scale and the use of modern farming inputs such as fertilizers and pesticides is limited because farmers hardly have access to it, since it is nationally distributed by the Federal Government.
Although the level of agricultural production in the State is somewhat low given the abundant resource endowment, Delta State is the largest crude oil producing State in Nigeria located in the Niger delta region, the base of the Nigerian oil and gas industry which generates over 90 percent of the nation’s foreign exchange earnings. Paradoxically, in spite of the increasing revenue from crude oil exploitation, the communities from which this resource flows in the Niger Delta continue to live in conditions of social deprivation and abject poverty.
All stages of oil exploitation impact negatively on the environment, and the greatest single intractable environmental problem caused by crude oil exploration in the Niger Delta region is oil spillage. According to[6], over 6000 spills had been recorded in the 40 years of
oil exploitation in Nigeria, with an average of 150 spills per annum. In the period 1976 – 1996, 647 incidents
occurred resulting in the spillage of 2,369,407.04 barrels
of crude oil. With only 549,060.38 barrels recovered,
1,820,410.50 barrels of oil were lost to the ecosystem