Puntland: Is it oil exploration or dumping of nuclear waste?

[Xaaji Xunjuf]

Puntland: Is it oil exploration or dumping of nuclear waste?

 

 

9th November 2011 ·

 

 

By Dr.Mohamed Said

 

I saw this story from Kenya many years back, and I just don’t know. Should you be pissed off at the company(ies) doing this, or our esteemed politicians who let this Rot go down?

 

“There was tremor of excitement in Kenya during the early 80s when word emerged that there would be a feasibility study on oil exploration in North EasternProvince.

 

The excitement reached fever pitch in 1983 when an American company sent an advance team to sample possible locations for drilling across 126,692 square kilometres of the semi-arid province.

 

Notable sites included Modica, Shanta Abak and Amuma in Garissa District, Gal Adow and Arbajahan in Wajir and Elwak in Mandera District.

 

And the belief that the prospectors would finally strike oil became a foregone conclusion when then President Moi symbolically endorsed the project by visiting Arbajahan in 1988. “At last, oil in Kenya” screamed a headline in the State newspaper the next day.

 

The developments elicited high expectations especially among the impoverished residents of the remote region, who believed that their new found resource would turn their fortunes around.

 

It meant the province, with only four kilometres of tarmacked roads and one of the highest poverty rates in the country, would be transformed into the backbone of the economy after edging out agriculture. Kenya also looked forward to claim her rightful position in the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec).

 

According to a resident, Mudey Sambul Hassan, the locals were even contemplating negotiating with the prospecting company for a tangible share of the oil, now that it was in their ancestral land.

 

But all this has since turned out to be castles in the air. No oil was ever discovered in North Eastern and it is further suspected that the American company came to the country with ulterior motives.

 

There are widespread fears that the company was dumping toxic waste in the arid region under the guise of exploring for oil. The anguished residents are now up in arms and want the Government to dispel speculation that the company deposited nuclear waste at the sites.

 

A visit to the region reveals that the company excavated deep trenches and later covered them with concrete slabs.

 

Residents who were employed by the company as casuals during the purported exploration confided that they would be unceremoniously laid off whenever the depth of the trenches reached a certain level.

 

“The top company managers would herd us from the site whenever the project reached a certain stage,” says Hassan, who was one of the casual labourers.

 

He further intimated that huge loads from trucks would be offloaded at the sites just before the labourers were laid off, fuelling speculation that the company did not wish the locals to see the contents.

 

Most residents living near the sites have been complaining of strange and incurable diseases, which they claim are caused by the alleged presence of radioactive material.

 

Mrs Nuriya Abdullahi, an official with a local non-governmental organisation, Wajir Peace and Development Agency, says some of the alleged victims have been admitted to the district hospital with “very strange deformities.”

 

“During the former regime, no one could raise a finger for fear of reprisal from brutal government forces,” she says.

 

The company is believed to have left the unknown substances buried in the area and herdsmen have steered clear of it for fear that their animals will die.

 

During a tour by a team from the National Environment Management Authority (Nema) recently, the residents claimed that hundreds of their cattle had died after drinking water from points within the precincts of the alleged dumping sites.

 

Nema board chairman Prof Canute Khamala said it was possible for a company to deposit nuclear waste products without the knowledge of the locals.

 

He said he was aware of claims that the alleged rogue company had established a separate road network for its shipment from the Indian Ocean.

 

The authority’s director-general, Prof Retemo Michieka, said the board would petition the Radiation Board of Kenya to bring experts to the sites with radioactive detectors to authenticate the claims.

 

He said a fact-finding mission along the Kenyan coastline indicated that some species of fish and sea plants had been devastated by radio-active leakage from the said dumping site in nation.

 

Michieka said the mysterious substances buried in NEP would be dug up to establish their nature.

 

Nema also heard that residents in the affected areas had suffered from strange skin illnesses, throat cancer, barrenness and giving birth to children with deformities. Their livestock too gave birth to strange young ones, they claimed.

 

A spot check further revealed that the vegetation around the alleged dumping sites had long withered, leaving bare fields.

 

Wild animals are also said to have been affected and have allegedly moved to other grazing areas.

 

Although the Government has to-date neither dispelled nor confirmed the presence of the alleged nuclear dumping site, residents believe a senior government official gave the Canadian company the green light to carry out its dirty work.

 

Fast forward to Puntland in 2011 and the situation looks the same. Similar Minnow companies with no track record on Exploration and Production wants to drill for oil and gas in Dharoor Valley in North Eastern Somalia.

 

 

 

The Question Why Dharoor Valley of all Places considering that there are Magmatic (Volcanic) Rocks around there? And secondly are these companies out to discourage us once a dry well comes up?

 

 

 

In Dharoor region in what was called Block 31, AGIP drilled at Darin I that came up dry at a depth of 2989 metres and recently the acreage asset was still booked under the Balance sheet of AGIP. Conoco that also declared force majeure in the late 80’s also had assets in Somalia and all these were given to Consort Pty Ltd in 2005 by the Adde Regime which amounted to more than 225,000 square kilometres. Consort Pty.Ltd a company registered at the Maldives with connections to organized criminal cartels latter brought around Range Resources, Africa Oil and Lundin Petroleum by proxy via Africa Oil.

 

 

 

In 2007, a former Lundin Petroleum Executive and Chief Executive of Amsas Consulting Pty.Ltd an Australian Resource and Management Consulting firm sued and challenged the validity of the initial licensing awarded to Consort Pty.Ltd but with Puntland and Somalia having no legal standing in International law due to Somalia being classified as a ‘Failed State’ Amsas Consulting and Dr.Ali Abdullahi are contemplating at suing at Australian, Canadian, Swedish and Kenyan Courts.

 

 

 

Africa Oil and their partners also claim to have spent close to $80 Million on exploration. The Federal Government that has both defacto and dejeure powers has never even seen any money coming from these suspicious companies. The TFG has the mandate on Natural Resources as stipulated in the charter of 2004 schedule I …’ The Transitional Federal Government shall have authority throughout the Somali Republic over the following matters – Natural Resources’.

 

 

 

Somaliland another enclave that wants to secede from the rest of Somalia has recently been talking about giving away acreage to international oil companies yet the TFG has been silent on this issue. The Somali Transitional Federal Charter of 2004 clearly stipulates in Article (2)(3) that ..’ The Somali Republic shall have the following boundaries. (a) North; Gulf of Aden. (b) North West; Djibouti. © West; Ethiopia. (d) South south-west; Kenya. (e) East; Indian Ocean and Somaliland is within the boarders of Somalia.

 

 

 

What I fail to understand is what is the definition of Somalia? And isn’t Somaliland part of Somalia? The UN and others think otherwise and the so-called ‘’Road Map’’ is nothing but another suspicious project of UNPOS with a hidden agenda.

 

 

 

Finally, considering that the Puntland Administration’s time is about to come to an end in December 2011, after three years of the Farole Regime we hope the radioactive fallout from would be drilling at Dharoor will not destroy the flora and fauna that is barely visible in the Dharoor Valley. Time will prove whether the 80’s fiasco in Northern Kenya is similar to what Africa Oil and others want to do once again in a poor African State- Puntland.

[A_Khadar]

Wax kasta ka yaabal.. Anything is possible from Saancadaha..

[Somalia]

Your headline has absolutely nothing to do with the contents of this article.

 

Cuqdad is bad, the oil has to be shared anyways so calm down.