Environmental Racism: Injustice and Corruption in the Niger Delta

A small community in the Niger Delta has suffered environmental injustice to an unimaginable degree. Erovie is a small, poor community where houses are made out of mud, and the residents drink dirty pond and river water. Many oil companies target poorer countries for their place of extraction because they know their infinite bank accounts will entice the countries to sign a business deal, and that is just what Shell has done.

In 2001 delegates from around the world attended the World Conference Against Racism in Durban, South Africa, just thousands of miles away from where some of the most extreme racism was taking place. Shell Oil Company injected a million liters of waste into an abandoned well in Erovie in 1999, it didn't take long for people's health to be affected. Within two months of Shell polluting the well 93 people perished of a mysterious illness. Two Nigerian Universities conducted independent research studies and they found that the substance contained poisonous amounts of lead, zinc and mercury. The community has insisted that Shell pay restitution to the community, but the Nigerian government ran a newspaper ad saying that the substance proposed no obvious harm to the health of the people and environment.

The reason for the government showing little concern for the injustice is because Shell produces two million crude barrels of oil a day. The government and oil company share the profits with little money going to the communities that are being subjected to the hazardous and unfair environment. It didn't surprise me too much when I learned that most of the money the government receives from the oil company is directly deposited into the bank accounts of the big government officials. The coordinator of the non-governmental International Oil Working Group, Terisa Turner, said the environmental racism that is occurring in the Niger Delta is because of propaganda "devised by corporate public relations conmen, blinding oil consumers in the west from knowing or caring."

Capitalistic interests have now become the dominant factor in regulating societies around the world, thus putting human rights on the back-burner. I think putting basic human rights before capitalistic interests is only logical and morally correct.