Pollution protests in Nigeria

dailymotion.com

It looks like water - but this bucket actually contains crude oil.  Angry villagers along Nigeria's coast are blaming the region's biggest producer, Royal Dutch Shell, for a massive oil spill that has devastated the area.  They have spent much of their time scooping up the spilled oil into buckets while scores of fish lie dead on a beach and dozens of boats - fishing the main source of income for many - have been damaged.  Thirteen villages in the Niger Delta are reportedly affected by the spill.  (SOUNDBITE) (English) JACOB UKA, COMMUNITY CHAIRMAN, SAYING:  "The pollution is there, the problem is there, so we can not go to the river, being we are based on fishing, there is no way we can live with our families...please and please...in order for peace to reign let the federal government look into this problem immediately."  Shell is denying that the washed-up oil is from its 200,000 barrel per day deep sea Bonga facilility - 120 kms out to sea - which was shut down by a spill nearly two weeks ago.  Its chairman says that spill was dispersed and contained before it reached the shore - a claim disputed by the villagers and rights groups.  (SOUNDBITE) (English) MUTIU SUNMONU, SHELL CHAIRMAN NIGERIA, SAYING:  "The source of the leak has been identified, we have been able to isolate it. I am hoping that production resumption is not going to be in the distant future."  Shell blames the oil on the beach on other activities such as oil theft in the area.  Spills by all oil companies operating in the region are common.  Sunita Rappai, Reuters

Pollution protests in Nigeria official