An oil spill threatens a devastating environmental disaster in Shabwa
English - Wednesday 23 December 2020 الساعة 02:42 pm
Aden, NewsYemen:
A recent scientific study has warned of the danger of environmental pollution in Shabwa Governorate (southeastern Yemen), resulting from an oil leak, as a result of a dilapidated pipeline for exporting oil, and the continuous attacks on production lines and the devastating effects that this could cause on the environment and the communities located along the pipelines of oil according to Al-Sharq Al-Awsat newspaper.
The study prepared by the geological expert, Dr. Abdul-Ghani Jaghman, and the academic at the College of Petroleum and Minerals in Shabwa, Dr. Abdulmoneim Habtoor, called on government agencies and local authorities to take the recommendations seriously, and obligate the operating companies to treat these leaks with an accurate scientific system.
The study, titled “Environmental Oil Pollution and its Destructive Effects on the Environment in Yemen,” called for stopping pumping oil into the dilapidated oil pipeline in Sector No. 4 extending from Ayyad to Al-Nashima Port on the Arabian Sea, due to the large and frequent environmental pollution.
It also called for the speedy avoidance of the negative impacts on society and agriculture, and the prevention of causing an environmental imbalance that is difficult to control and cannot be avoided in the future.
The study concluded with several recommendations, the most important of which is stopping the pumping of oil through the pipeline, carrying out complete maintenance, ensuring that no leakage occurs in the future, contracting with specialized companies to remove waste from the affected areas, in a scientific manner, and treating it with biological and biological methods.
It also recommended the inclusion of special legislation for legal environmental control in production contracts and agreements with companies, and the imposition of strict conditions and control to activate environmental control, health and environmental safety, and limit pollution of all kinds in the concession areas.
The study called for “requiring the companies that use and owners of the pipeline to apply all international technical standards, the necessity to implement an urgent program to address the environmental problems of the affected communities, adapt national legislation, and oblige companies to study the environmental and social impact of all their activities in the concession areas, and to review them periodically and approve them by the competent authorities.”
In the context, Al-Sharq Al-Awsat newspaper quoted by Dr. Abdel Moneim Habtoor, a participant in the study, that there is silence and lack of explanation about what is happening in the directorates of Shabwah governorate located along a pipeline (Sector 4, west of Ayyad - Mina Al-Nashima) and what the local environment suffers in the regions Exploration and production of oil in Yemen from oil spills due to the exhaustion of the pipeline, or the continuous attacks and attempts to steal from the pipeline repeatedly.
He added, "We have conducted a detailed study on the effects of oil pollution resulting from oil spills due to oil production operations in Yemen, in particular in the pipeline that was established in 1987 and went to multiple areas, and sampled from oil spills along the pipeline."
He confirmed the presence of severe pollution in large quantities and repeatedly, and said, “All special measurements indicate significant pollution effects, represented by an increase in the oil content, salinity and salts in the soil and water intended for drinking, surface or subsurface, which caused severe damage to the surrounding environment, including flora and fauna, and a negative societal impact ".
