by Vanesa Martin
Wells Bring Hope works only in Niger, the world’s poorest nation. In contrast to the extreme poverty in Niger, its neighbor to the south, Nigeria, is one of the richest countries in Africa. Nigeria owes its wealth to the fact that it is an oil-rich country, and a sizeable portion of the Nigerian population works within or near the lucrative oil drilling business that operates along the Niger Delta. Enormous, transnational corporations such as Exxon Mobil and Shell have faced widespread opposition from various players internationally given their reprehensible reputation for polluting the waters of the expansive river, which is a drinking and bathing source for many impoverished families in several countries, including Niger. Some of the results of this contamination have been a concerning rise in birth defects within areas in the river’s vicinity, as well as the inability to farm and fish near the water. Moreover, the community around the delta reaps none of the profits that hugely profitable corporations such as Exxon Mobil makes; electricity, for example, is still essentially non-existent despite the fact that Exxon Mobil was the second most profitable corporation of 2014.
In response to these facts, an activist group has recently been making itself known. The Niger Delta Avengers, which purportedly consists mostly of young and educated Nigerian citizens, has actively been attempting to shut down drilling operations by causing explosions at the refineries, as well as crude and gas lines. Their intentions, according to statements released by the group itself, are not to hurt innocent civilians but to take matters of environmental justice into their own hands when these corporations will not pay them any attention.
The Niger Delta is an oil-rich region in the southwestern part of Nigeria that has long been a source of dispute between the people that live in the area and those looking to profit off its natural resources. On their website, the Niger Delta Avengers have vowed to destroy both Chevron and Shell’s most important refineries in the Delta region for the sake of justice for their communities. Even if it means dealing a devastating blow to the Nigerian economy in the process—this is a prime example of the desperation and of the gravity brought about by the oppression of the concerns of locals. Despite the fact that this issue certainly affects Nigeria directly and severely, the repercussions are felt in neighboring countries that have rivers that connect and flow into the Delta, such as Niger and Cameroon. Currently, all three countries are suffering from political corruption, Boko Haram attacks, and a drought exacerbated by the effects of El Niño, but the violence and the adverse health effects caused by the polluted water is, in any case a sure sign of the importance of a reliable source of water.
By providing access to clean water to the communities of Niger, Wells Bring Hope can mitigate the problems faced by contaminated river water sources by accessing groundwater. It is difficult to solve political and economic conflicts like the one currently plaguing the Nigerian Delta region, but wells can go into effect much more rapidly and bring lasting and sustainable change to impoverished and innocent civilians locally.
