Читать книгу Oil, power and a sign of hope - Klaus Stieglitz - Страница 8
Оглавление2008
A Suspicion
For more than 20 years, Southern Sudan has been the focus of Sign of Hope’s work. The rendering of assistance in an area repeatedly roiling with crises requires the careful selection of partners, ones capable of pursuing projects even in times of great difficulty. South Sudan (which was formerly part of the country of Sudan) is one of the poorest countries in the world. As such, it requires a wide variety of assistance: in helping supply its people with food, potable water, medical treatment (via “bush” clinics and other parts of a dedicated infrastructure) and education. Requisite to set up a resilient organization is the dispatching of own staff to the region. They then work with local players. Sign of Hope accordingly has deployed up to 80 staff members to South Sudan. Their jobs include the facilitation of mother-children projects, of the building of village day care centers, and of the operation of two bush clinics.
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Sign of Hope received at the end of 2007 an alarming message from Southern Sudan. It stated that a trustworthy person living in the region had been receiving over the past few weeks and months ever-more frequent and disturbing reports of there being something wrong with the water found in the vicinity of the oil rigs ringing Thar Jath. Worried mothers were complaining about its bitterness. It was being said that the water was so salty that children were immediately vomiting after drinking it. Cases of stomach aches and diarrhea were reported to have become more and more common. Along with children, the elderly and the weak were suffering from this. Livestock were dying in unusually large numbers. According to the herders, this was due to the bad water. The people in the region viewed the cause of the water’s contamination as being the wastes produced by the oil industry. The wastes contained chemicals that were probably being deposited in the ambient environment. As the message stated, there were no hard facts. Our contacts in the region issued a desperate plea. They had neither funds nor any ways of conducting an investigation. So they were asking Sign of Hope to do such. The organization was surely capable of helping from its base in Germany?
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The staff working for Sign of Hope’s Sudan Project are equally as alarmed. Access to safe water has become in any case a main concern of many of the world’s human rights activists. On December 23, 2003, the 58th General Assembly of the United Nations called “Water for Life” into being. This was to be an International Decade of Action.1 The Decade commenced on March 22, 2005, which was World Water Day. The Decade was to end on March 22, 2015.2 The Decade was to be employed to make the world’s decision-makers and the general public aware of the importance of water. A thrust of this program was pushing to ensure that commitments made were lived up to.3 The program’s objective was to halve by 2015 the number of people that do not have access to safe water and to appropriate sanitary facilities.4 Another objective: putting an end to unsustainable ways of using water.5
The right to consume clean water still hasn’t been officially approved and to thus take legal force. The world is, however, increasingly aware of the water-related emergencies facing its peoples—and of the ever-more apparent ramifications of these. This awareness is yielding action. Such human rights organizations as Sign of Hope regard the human right to have clean water as being indisputable.
No one knows what we at Sign of Hope will discover in the Sudan. Perhaps the reports of bad water are nothing more than unfounded rumors. That has been known to happen. Speaking against this is the verdict rendered by our contact, who enjoys our complete trust. He regards the situation as being very serious. That is why there is only one decision to be reached. We have to see whether or not the fears are in fact based in fact. But how are we to go about this? We could takes samples from the oil fields, to see if they are contaminated. We are currently preparing our next trip to the Sudan. Its purpose is to ascertain the state of human rights. We have put the areas of oil extraction on our itinerary. Sign of Hope has never gathered samples of water. Our operating maxim also, however, applies to this case: anything practical will be done.
The first step is easy. Klaus Stieglitz is friends with a staff member of a water testing laboratory. It is located in the vicinity of the Lake of Constance. Stieglitz’ friend shows him to gather samples of water, and how to perform quick tests of it. He also instructs him in the preparation of the samples for being investigated in laboratories. Another laboratory—also located in the same region—is to be commissioned with the carrying out of the requisite further analyses. Bottles for the transporting of samples are then provided to the organization, which drafts forms to be used in the forthcoming collection of samples.
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The South learns how to assert its interest
A land experiencing a chaotic disruption, one caused by the strife among its groups and interests: that is the general picture of the Sudan. Contradicting this depiction of a country tearing itself part are the clearly-established guidelines that have been established in the Sudan. They apply to the handling of oil reserves. These guidelines mandate this processing’s conforming to societal and environmental principles. Due to these, no one can claim lack of awareness of the perils arising from the failure to adhere to these.
While the peace talks were being conducted between the conflicting parties, a meeting held in Kenya in January 2004 had established that the exploitation of Sudan’s natural resources would observe standards of sustainability. The Basic Memorandum signed on January 7, 2004 would go on to become Chapter III of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement of 2005.6 Subscribed to by the parties, the Memorandum’s Point III. 1.10 stated that the sharing of prosperity would be the principle informing the responsible treatment of the resources available. The Point stated: “that the best-known method of the sustainable utilization and control of natural resources shall follow.”7 What this meant: the exploitation of the country’s natural resources was to adhere to international standards.
The principles governing the utilization of oil resources were listed discretely in sub-point 3 of this Memorandum. Precisely-formulated requirements were created. They were designed to make the oil exploration and exploitation environmentally and socially compatible. As this shows, representatives of the government and of the rebels were aware at this time of the drilling for oil’s being associated with especially-grave disruptions in the habitats in which flora and fauna live—and of the need to keep this in mind. According to this agreement, the preservation of national interests and public welfare were to be given highest priority when prospecting for and extracting oil8. To be accorded the same importance were to be, in addition, the interests of regions involved9 and of the local population10. The listing of the principles also included the preconditions governing the reaching of all further decisions, the need to adhere to national environmental regulations, the directives for the preservation of biodiversity, and the principles for the protection of the cultural heritage.11 The Agreement gave rise to the National Petroleum Commission (NPC). Its board was to be comprised of representatives from both parties—on an equal basis. The Commission was charged with the responsibility for creating a body of rules implementing the above points and to be adhered to by the oil industry.12 The NPC was also to negotiate the contracts with extractors of oil.
The Agreement thus brought an end—at least on paper—to the era in which the people of Southern Sudan were at the mercy of the schemes of the North, in which the former could be exploited, expelled or massacred as so wished by the latter. A variety of cease-fire agreements notwithstanding, conflicts kept on breaking out until 2003 between the government’s troops and the rebels. The era was also marked by the full-scale attacks perpetrated upon the country’s civilians. These conflicts were motivated by the will to maintain or obtain control over oil fields. The government’s chief reason for waging war was, however, to enable its contractual partners’ undisturbed drilling for oil. Human rights organizations started reporting in 1999 on attacks being carried out against civilians. These were being carried out to drive them from the catchment areas of sources of oil.13 Although interrupted from time to time, the prospectors for oil did manage to overcome the disturbances ensuing from the civil war and to set forth their test drilling. These resulted in the pumping of oil.
In a first in the country’s history, the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) elevated the Southern Sudanese to being equally-entitled partners. Representatives of the rebels’ party gained unimpeded access to the contracts concluded with oil extraction companies. They were empowered to commission technical experts with the assessment of the ramifications of these contracts.14 Regarded as being especially important was the evaluation of impacts already having taken place. These agreements were worth more than the paper they were printed on. In 2006, the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) commissioned Norwegian experts with the compilation of an appraisal of the effects of oil extraction upon Southern Sudan. The appraisal was also to present the consequences of these, in view of the further expansion of the oil industry expected to occur.15
In 2007 and 2008, a team of experts from the Norwegian Directorate for Nature Management traveled throughout Sudan. The experts held talks with representatives of the government and with other officials in Khartoum and Juba. The team then visited industrial facilities and waste disposal facilities. This enabled them to get a picture of the effects of and challenges posed by the drilling for and extracting of oil in Southern Sudan. When compiling this evaluation, the team used as criteria the applicable international standards and the experiences gained in other countries in dealing with the risks known to arise from comparable on-shore drilling. The team also factored in the special conditions prevailing on site. It did not gather samples of the water, soil or living beings found in the vicinity of oil drilling and transportation facilities. This procedure was normal. The prime objective of the evaluation was to detail the parameters from which further, concrete measures were to be derived. The team’s evaluation thus constituted a beginning, albeit one that came in a period in which the drilling for oil was well advanced in Southern Sudan.
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On February 6, 2008, two staff members of Sign of Hope embark upon a 10-day trip to Southern Sudan. They are accompanied by two influential journalists. One is a Kenyan who works for the “Agence France Presse” (“AFP”) news service. He joins the group in Nairobi. “AFP’s” office in Nairobi is staffed by experts who are very interested in developments in Southern Sudan. The reporter writes an article that is carried on the wires of “AFP”, which is one of the world’s largest news agencies. The other reporter is German who works for “Schwäbische Zeitung”, a daily based in the southwest part of the country. He too will go on to publish his impressions of the trip.
After stops in Nairobi and Juba, Sign of Hope’s group arrives on February 8, 2008 in the town of Raga. The group’s five-hour delay is due to their plane’s, a chartered bush aircraft, not being ready to fly. Raga’s “airport” is a long sandy trail. The “airport terminal” is a container. Raga has some 20’000 residents, making it one of the largest settlements in Southern Sudan. The town is located close to the (in those days) virtual border to northern Sudan. Its region is called Western Bahr el Ghazal.16 The town is the headquarters of the Commissioner for the County of Raga.
We make camp in Raga on a ground that is located within a secured area. The campground is in the immediate vicinity of traditional tukuls. Our group sleeps on foam rubber mats. We use camping cartridges to cook. Wandering animals are occasional visitors, with this especially occurring during the evening. We find a spider the size of a human palm. It must have hitched a ride in a rolled up pant leg. There is no other explanation for its suddenly making its present known in the middle of the night by noisily climbing up the tent—from the inside. In an instinctive move, one of us captures it using a coffee cup, which is then used to send the gigantic insect on its way in the great outdoors. From now on, pant cuffs are going to be subject to intensive inspection. From time to time, we hear the local residents’ yells. This signals the sighting of a poisonous snake. Nobody pays any attention to a waran, although this lizard is a meter and a half in length, as it meanders through the little settlement. A waran is not dangerous. It shows absolutely no interest in us as it waddles right past us, displaying no fear in the process.
In 2007, Sign of Hope set up an assistance project in Raga. Since then, one of the Comboni Missionaries has been heading an educational project. In 2001, the friars had been forced to flee the war. The conclusion of conflict allowed them to return to their base of operations. The friars rebuilt their schools, which had been badly damaged. Separated by genders, 1,200 children are taught at two elementary and one high school. Most of these children are from large and very poor farmer families. Sign of Hope’s donation amounts to €20,000. It goes for the food provided to the children every day, for educational materials, and, in this year, for small-scale repairs. In addition to the schools, the Comboni friars maintain a large number of day care centers.
We travel on the following day to Boro Medina, which is 100 kilometers to the west of Raga. It takes five hours. There is a refugee camp in the town, and it was there that Sign of Hope’s work in the area started in 2007. The camp is home to people fleeing from war and floods, and to those returning to the region. We brought 200 first response packages during our first visit. To date, our assistance amounts to 1500 sacks and 75 tons of relief goods. In this trip, we are bringing 125 sacks, each containing 50 kilos of relief goods. These goods comprise basic food, blankets, plastic tarpaulins, cooking equipment, mosquito nets, soap and hoes. These goods go to families. Conditions have not improved since the previous year. The number of refugees has risen from 1,000 to 2,100.
A 40 year old woman belongs to the Borge, an ethnic group living farther to the north. There was fighting in her homeland. It caused her to flee in April of the previous year. She walked 15 days to get to the camp. “I was afraid, so afraid,” she says. “We were bombed by a plane, and shot at on the ground.”
The camps’ residents get very little support. The camp does not have any sanitary facilities. Nor does it have any housing capable of withstanding the elements. There is no medical care. The residents’ biggest foes are, however, hunger and thirst. Many of the people that we talk to complain about not having anything or very little to eat. Another problem: there is no water—and certainly no clean water—in the vicinity of the camp. This forces most of the women to trudge 40 minutes to the Boro river. Refugee families have recently arrived in the villages of Minamba and Deim Jalab. We deliver 45 sacks of relief goods there, with the rest going to Boro Medina. Sign of Hope donates € 20,000 for this delivery of goods. The organization plans to deliver a further € 40,000’s worth of goods.
We return on February 11, 2008 to Raga, where we confer with paramilitary and other soldiers. The civil war featured a number of battles and massive attacks upon civilians in the region. Many of these attacks were carried out by militia fighting for North Sudan. The Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) of 2005 foresaw the disarming of all militia. The army serving the regime in Khartoum and the SPLA rebels were joined by a variety of militias in fighting for the two sides. Several of the militias’ commanders can be aptly described as warlords. They were prone to changing sides. This propensity made the security situation in the regions involved virtually incomprehensible. A monopoly on force exerted by a legitimatized government did not exist. Might makes right—that was the principle in the region. If you have a gun, you can get your way. That is why one of the most important objectives of the CPA is to disband these “OAGs” (“other armed groups”), or to integrate them into the SPLA or the government’s army. To achieve this, a team of observers has been dispatched. It is being led by the USA’s military, and is supposed to ensure the protection of civilians. Sign of Hope is an NGO. As such, we are entitled to report our observations to this team. In fact, we frequently receive from our on-site contacts reports of armed gangs and of conflicts in South Darfur and points farther away in Southern Sudan.
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Our expedition in 2007 enabled us to prove that two militia were illegally stationed in Raga, notwithstanding the security arrangements forming part of the CPA, which had been ratified two years previously. We were able to speak to both militias’ commanders. Major Hassan Mohammed Abo commanded the Quot al Salam militia, which had stationed 3,750 troops in the city. Major Hamdan Ahmed al-Momim headed the Fursan militia, which had 1,320 soldiers.
Our contacts tell us during our expedition in 2008 that the Quot al-Salam militia has lived up to the CPA and has decamped. The Fursan militia is said, although three years have elapsed since the CPA, to still be in the city. In fact, it is supposed to have retained all of its arms. The only difference is that the original commander is no longer there. We have to verify this information.
The barracks that housed the Quot al-Salam militia in the previous year is empty. Except for the empty cartridges strewn all around the barracks’ sandy ground, there are no visible signs of the militia. Our trips through Raga also reveal no members of the militia. The Fursan are, however, still around. We confer with the current warlords. They are situated in the same headquarters in which we had spoken with the previous year’s commander. The militia’s emblem, a tin sign, is still posted on the building’s entryway. The commanders state that their army numbers 1,623 soldiers, of which 500 to 600 fighters are in Raga, where they are working as traders in the market or as herders. According to the commanders, all of the soldiers are fully-armed with G3 rifles and Kalashnikov assault rifles. These were purchased for the militia by the regime in Khartoum, which continues to pay them for their services, and to which they are loyal. For this reason, they are prepared to hand over their weapons only to representatives of the Khartoum regime. They would expect to be paid for such. The militia do not want to show us their guns, because they had done so for the UNMIS (United Nations Mission in Sudan), whose representatives had then taken photographs of them.
The militia’s heads refer to themselves as “Amir”. They tell us that they have heard that a large SPLA unit is making its way from Wau to Raga, so as to disarm the Fursan. They are not prepared to accept that. “We will not hand over our weapons to them. If they want to conduct talks with us, we are not going to say anything. If they want to, we will fight.” It is a danger-fraught conflict. Should the SPLA in fact let itself be drawn into fighting with the militia, the ones suffering will be, once more, the civilians.
In addition to the Fursan militia, there are other soldiers in Raga. Two regular battalions are stationed in the city, each manned by 350 soldiers. The battalions belong respectively to the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF)—the army of the Khartoum government and to the SPLA, which used to be the rebels’ armed forces. Together, these two battalions comprise a “Joint Integrated Unit” (JIU). This “merger” seems to be working out. We set up a meeting with the commander of the SAF (the Khartoum regime’s army). He tells us that the relationship between the two units is good, the fact that they were enemies until January 9, 2005 notwithstanding. He reports that the two commanders sometimes eat together. “There are no tensions between the soldiers of the JIU,” he states, “and if there are, it’s only when they are drunk.” The two battalions have formed a football team. It occasionally competes against other teams from Raga, the commander says. It is as if he wants to show us how normal daily life has already become, despite the decades of civil war. He is also worried about the problem posed by the Fursan, and by the facts that their presence and their being financed by the Khartoum regime represent grievous breaches of the peace agreements. The JIUs have, however, not been given the mandate to disarm the militia.
The successful refusal by the Fursan militia to let themselves be disarmed is an unmistakable indication that the state’s authority—and its legitimate monopoly upon force—is not respected in this part of Sudan. The peaceful departure of the militia would help stabilize the region. The Janjaweed mounted militia are still fighting in the Darfur region, and the situation there is accordingly dramatic. The Khartoum regime had equipped the Arab nomadic tribals in the region with modern armaments, and trained them in their use, so to enlist them in the fight against the African ethnic groups rebelling against the regime. These moves were motivated by the regime’s views that the Southern Sudanese’ demands for rights in and to their lands are unacceptable. The Janjaweed are doing more than fighting against armed rebels. They are oppressing the entire population—through the perpetration of mass murders, plundering and rape.17
Khartoum is completely closing its eyes to the countless cases of violations of human rights being committed upon ethnic groups not enjoying their favor. The regime is well aware of the traditional disrespect accorded by the Arabic nomad groups for the peoples of Southern Sudan. This is due to the latter’s having other religions and another skin color. It is also due to their being farmers. Khartoum is now ruthlessly exploiting this dislike, in order to pursue its interests. Darfur is home to Arab and African ethnic groups. The latter’s religion is a mix of Christianity and of animism. This tradition of coexistence is now to be shattered by the Arabs’ purging of the Africans and of their “wrong religions” and “wrong ethnic” ties. This “cleansing” is obviously supported by the regime. It puts an end to the conflict resolution mechanisms that the various ethnic groups had so successfully employed in the era prior to the creation of the nation of the Sudan.18 The regime in the north was able to sit back and relax, while the uncontrollable violence (or so it was made to seem) was being unleashed against the civilians in the south. To put the situation in a nutshell: the regime in Khartoum opened the hunting season upon these civilians.19
In the course of our talks in the refugee camp in Boro, we meet large number of eyewitnesses to the assaults carried out by the Sudanese army and by their paramilitary allies. A number of women from the village of Dafak report having been the objects of a bombardment carried out on May 12, 2007 by the Sudanese air force. This attack forced the women to flee.
A 25 year old woman and her four children have fled. They arrived at the camp only 25 days ago. They belong to the Meziriyah group, and lived in the village of Jokan, which is located in the county of Buram. Mariam and her family departed from their village on the night of the first Monday in the first week in January. She reports that her village was attacked in the night. “They came late in the evening. They were on foot and in cars. They shot most of the villagers, and then burned the village down. We had no one to help us. I took my children and ran away. The attackers shot at me.” We asked her if she could describe the attackers in more detail. She said that they wore green uniforms with insignia of rank, and, as well, dark blue caps. The particular targets of their attacks were the Zaghawa, a African ethnic group. The assault had robbed the woman of her 30 livestock and all of her stores of grain. Shortly after our interview with this woman, we were able to speak to her eight year old daughter. The child remembered running away at night, with her mother holding her hand. She also recalled hearing shots.
Several days subsequently, on January 18, 2008, the village of Malaaka, which is located in the vicinity of Rudom, was reportedly attacked. We learn of the assault from another young mother. She fled, along with her three children, from the village to the camp. The woman states that the Janjaweed had attacked the village in the early morning. As she says: “They came at three in the morning. I heard their shooting. I put one of my children on my back and one on my chest. I grabbed the hand of the third one. And we ran away.” The woman later learned of her brother’s having been shot in his chest.
Eyewitness accounts constitute important evidence. They will thus form part of the report that we will submit to the Human Rights Council of the United Nations on the ongoing violations of human rights by both the militia and by the Sudanese army.
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What is putting the salt in the region’s drinking water? Our search for answers starts in the Thar Jath oil field. We fly on February 12, 2008 from Raga to Leer, which is where we set up our new camp. It serves as our base for our research into the source of the contamination of water. On our day of arrival, we travel from Leer to Adok, which is a port on the Nile. It is a transport node. It joins the roads coming from the oil fields with the waterway to the north. An excellently-maintained (at least until Bentiu), all-weather gravel road links Adok to Bentiu, the capital of Sudan’s Unity state. This road makes the oil fields easily accessible. The previous residents of the area have had to pay a high price for the building of this road. Lundin Oil is based in Sweden. In 2000, the company was undertaking sample drilling in the region. Lundin Oil lodged at the time a complaint with the Khartoum regime: the bad roads found in its region of concession would cause delays in its operations. Conducted during the dry season, the next campaigns waged by the regime’s troops were against the population in the area. Their settlements stood in the way of the construction of the road. The region was thus efficaciously “cleansed” for this purpose. Tens of thousands of people were either killed or forced to flee. Their villages were destroyed.20 In 2003, Human Rights Watch submitted a nearly 600 page report on the relationships among these events, and on the causes of the civil war in Sudan.21 Our enjoyment of this road—after all the bumpy trails that we had been forced to endure—and of the speed it enabled thus gave us a strange feeling.
We proceed on the following morning along the road to the Thar Jath oil field, in which the contamination of the environment was said to exist. We travel northwards down the broad road, enjoying the overwhelming views of absolutely unspoiled nature. The area on whose edge we are now traversing is one of the world’s largest contiguous wetlands. The Nile’s dividing itself into rivulets whose currents are scarcely perceptible has created a huge delta. With its actual size depending on the amounts of rainfall and of water conveyed from the lake serving as the source of the Nile, these wetlands—the “Sudd”—covers an area of up to 5.7 million hectares. This is the size of Belgium. During the dry season, herders let their large herds of cattle and goats graze in the meter-high grass growing on the fertile ground. The diversity of fauna existing in this gigantic habitat of marsh and flood plain has been compared by experts to that of the Serengeti.22 Birds decked out in the brightest colors imaginable accompany us on our way. A bald eagle perches directly on the road. Species of birds unknown to us—each more colorful than the one previously—join a lizard about a meter long that is lying bored in the blindingly hot sun in imparting an interesting impression of the diversity found in the region.
In conjunction with the international Ramsar Convention,23 the Sudd was incorporated on World Environment Day into the list of wetlands of worldwide importance.24 This made the Sudd the second habitat in Sudan to be accorded this honor, which was conferred in an official ceremony staged in Khartoum. This honor was due to the exceptional importance of these wetlands, which are the fourth largest in the world. The Sudd fulfills all of the criteria foreseen for being conferred such a classification. These criteria are laid down in the Ramsar Convention.25 The awarding of the status of being a protected area—as narrowly defined—does not, however, ensue from this incorporation. The Sudd’s protection is the responsibility of the Sudanese government, which is now called upon to create an appropriate body of rules and control mechanisms.26
The Sudd is gigantic. It is comprised of a variety of ecosystems, with these including open water and its underwater vegetation; floating vegetation found on the edges of expanses of water; classic marshes; woods flooded on a seasonal basis; grass hollows irrigated by rain and by floods; meadows; and bush brush. The Sudd is the winter home of species of birds whose protection is of both regional and of international importance. They include the white pelican, whose wings can attain a span of up to 3.6 meters, white storks, crowned cranes and sea swallows. The wetlands are full of plants, fish, birds and mammals. The latter include the endangered Mongalla gazelle, the eland, the African elephant, and the shoe bill stork. Giant herds of peripatetic mammals subsist upon the grass growing in the wetlands during the dry season.27
Recently-compiled scientific studies help get a grasp of the biodiversity found in this region. In 2007, the regime in Southern Sudan and the USA-based Wildlife Conservation Society jointly published and presented at inventory—the first compiled in 25 years—of the biodiversity found in Southern Sudan. One of the American researchers involved reported that his first encounter with this richness of flora and flora left him rubbing his eyes.28 “I thought I was hallucinating,” he told the New York Times.29 The researchers’ counts were extrapolated to yield a total of nearly 1.5 million gazelles and antelopes. Among the latter: healthy populations of white-eared kobs, which are found only in this region and in Uganda. The researchers took to the air to observe closely-packed herds of animals covering an expanse of 80 kilometers in length and 50 kilometers in breadth.30 Sighted in the region were even the oryx antelopes, which had been regarded as being extinct in this area, along with herds of elephants, giraffes, lions and leopards.31 Crocodiles and hippopotamuses throng the region’s lagoons and lakes.32
The civil wars in Mozambique and Angola allowed poachers to all but wipe out the wild animals. The researchers thus approached their expedition to Sudan with grave trepidations.33 The animal population found in northwestern area of Southern Sudan turned out in fact to have been ravaged by poachers. This was also the case in Boma national park, which is located in the southeast of the area. The gigantic herds of buffaloes and zebras had been completely decimated.34 Reports were received on a frequent basis of the Jajanweed’s slaughtering of entire herds of elephants—for their ivory—found in neighboring countries.35 The Sudd is impassible. And that obviously hindered the region’s penetration by poachers. The swamp became the shield protecting the animals of Southern Sudan.36
The roads leading to the oil fields intersect the animals’ traditional paths of migration. This was a concern of the nature protectors. It took seemingly a miracle to protect the animals from destruction during the war. The animals saved by this miracle are now threatened with being the victims of the post-war era. The Sudd serves another purpose. It makes the region absolutely indispensable. Viewed hydrologically, the Sudd is a huge filter that monitors and normalizes the quality of the water passing through it. The Sudd is like a huge sponge. It thus stabilizes the water’s flowage. The wetlands are the main source of the water needed by humans and animals. It is also a rich source of fish. The Sudd’s inhabitants belong mostly to the Dinka, Nuer and Shilluk ethnic groups. Their lives, livelihoods and cultural activities are completely dominated by the seasons, and particularly by the alternating between dry and wet weather. The rainy season enables the recovery of the meadows on which the cattle graze. The local people leave their homes upon the commencement on the dry season. These homes are located in the highlands. They and their livestock migrate to the lowlands.
The beginning of the rainy season, which generally comes in May or June, causes them to return to their villages.37 One of the reasons for the civil war between north and south’s breaking out once more was the plan to dry out the Sudd. This would have been done through the building of a canal. It would have enabled the Nile’s water to flow to the north.38 This would have stripped the south’s people of the wellspring of their lives. It was as early as 2006 that the exploitation of oil reserves was recognized to be a threat to this unique ecosystem. The pumping of oil was launched for the first time in the same year. Has this peril in fact become—so very quickly—a reality? We are going to look at the mater in depth.
The first evidence of the change takes the form of the rusted signs placed on the side of the road. They indicate the presence of oil fields. The next sight is—fully unexpectedly—the appearance of high voltage lines. We pass every more frequently oil pumps protected by rings of barbed wire. We are now in the middle of the Thar Jath oil fields. And suddenly, from out of nowhere, six smokestacks appear in front of us. Each has a pattern of red and white rings. They form part of the refinery whose construction has been completed a couple of months previously. The refinery has been commissioned a few weeks earlier. Issuing from two of the stacks are dark clouds of pollutants. The unpainted metal expanses found on pipes, tanks and buildings reflect the blinding sunlight. The facility is fenced in. The watchtowers placed on the corners are scary.
We drive past the facility. Six and a half kilometers down the road is Rier, where we meet with lots of the local residents, and takes notes of these discussions. This Rier is new. The old village was destroyed to make room for a facility for the pumping of oil. The town’s 3,500 residents were forced in 2005 by the Khartoum regime to immediately leave. The residents say that North Sudan was in control of their region until the beginning of the year. They received neither indemnification nor assistance in the construction of their new homes.
The new Rier feels like a refugee camp. It has hardly anything of a time-crafted homeland. In contrast to other communities, the first step in the building of this one was not the construction of the tukuls—the abode huts—and then the laying out of the paths connecting the clumps of houses. In the “new” Rier, the streets were first laid out in a strict grid. Hutches for the residents were then constructed along these roads. The expelling of these people from their town is yet another alarming breach of basic human rights.
One special source of concern is the quality of the water available for drinking. A hand-operated pump is supposed to transport the water out of the ground. But the residents of Rier do not use this water any more. They assume that the water has been contaminated by the chemicals released by the oil companies. A young girl reports: “The water is bitter. We don’t even wash our clothes with it, because the water attacks the colors and destroys the fabric.” She thus confirms many accounts of the matter. It was these that caused our contact in the region to voice his growing concerns to us.
We take in Rier our first sample of water on February 13th. It is of the water brought up by this hand pump. We then travel to Koch, which is 23 kilometers away from the refinery. Many of the people we talk to report that their livestock have died and that the water is bad. They are afraid of being called to account for such statements. For that reason, they refuse to tell us their names. “They made all sorts of promises to us: schools, road, supplies. And what have they delivered? Do you see any schools here? What we need is healthful land and clean water, so that we can let our herds graze,” says a young man.
We subsequently have a meeting with Colonel Peter Bol Ruot, the Commissioner of the county of Koch. He is holding court in a nicely-furnished and extended tukul. His “court” is strangely old-fashioned. The hut is very clean and neat. An acacia occupies the center of the yard, providing shade. We are offered places to sit—on plastic chairs bleached by the sun. The chair of the lord of the manor has been placed behind a small table. A satellite telephone lies on it. This is the status symbol in this remote region. We feel like we are being received by royalty.
The Commissioner answers our questions in a friendly way. His answers are alarming. In 2006, he states, 27 adults and 3 children died from drinking water contaminated with chemicals. At this moment, up to 1,000 persons have fallen sick due to the water, which has also killed large numbers of livestock. The Commissioner reports having gathered the local residents’ complaints and having relayed them to the oil consortium which is the licensee for Block 5A—the local oil field. In three cases, indemnification was paid—“without recognition of culpability on the part of the operator”, in the words of another official representative when speaking to the “AFP”. No other amends were made, the large number of cases notwithstanding.
Shortly after the meeting with the Commissioner, we encounter a man39 who works for one of the oil companies. He speaks openly about staff members’ wearing of gloves and face masks while they go about tossing chemical wastes into pits that have been dug for that purpose. As the man says, it’s now the dry season. In the rainy one to follow, these pits will be flooded. We take samples of the water in the wells in Koch and in that of the marshes along the road from Koch to Thar Jath, which goes around the refinery. We also do the same in the wells found in the town of Mirmir and in the swamp there. The least distance between the places of sampling and the suspected source of the contamination—the refinery—is 600 meters; the greatest, 32.7 kilometers.
We then bring the samples back to Leer, where we confer with the Commissioner40 there. Immediately after that, we meet, quite by accident, Dr. Riek Machar Teny and his wife Angelina Teny. Dr. Teny is the controversial vice president of Southern Sudan, which was accorded autonomy in 2005. Ms. Teny has been since 2005 the Minister of Energy in the joint regime set up in 2005 to unite Northern and Southern Sudan on an interim basis. It is a strange encounter. Riek Machar chats a bit with us. He inquires into our fact-finding mission. Notwithstanding this, we have the impression that we are banging our heads against a wall. What we have to say doesn’t really interest him, or so it seems. One reason for our skepticism may well be his ostentatious display of power, which reminds us of the suffering of the people in Southern Sudan.
Riek Machar’s wife is a highly regarded politician. She stated at a conference in 2006, held in Juba, that there was a problem with the produced water produced by the extraction of oil. As she mentioned, this crisis was particularly pronounced at the old drilling sites in the north. Companies launching operations in the South were on their ways to handling this.41 That might have thus been one possible reason for her having kept quiet while we related our suspicions.
On the following day, we fly back to Nairobi, where we hold on the subsequent day a press conference. At it, we present the preliminary findings of our expedition and call upon the government of Sudan to take effective action. The statements given by eyewitnesses that we have gathered suffice to prove the existence of a massive damaging of the health of local residents and the environment.
We then return to Germany, where we deliver on February 18th the samples of water to a renowned laboratory, which is to scientifically analyze them. The results confirm our assumption. The water taken from the wells in Rier turns out to be strongly contaminated. The analysis revealed a total amount of salt of 6,600.50 milligrams per liter of water (mg/l) and its contamination with strontium of 6.7 mg/l. The water in this sample evinces nitrates amounting to 81.6 mg/l. The USA’s Environmental Protection Agency’s recommended ceilings42 for the total amount of salt permissible in potable water has been set at 500 mg/l. The sample investigated thus exceeds this ceiling 13-fold. The ceiling for nitrate has been established to be 10 mg/l and has thus been exceeded 8-fold. A concentration of nitrates in such amounts can cause infants to take seriously ill. The failure to treat these illness can lead to death. The findings from points of sample collection further afield do not give rise to concerns.
The result is terrifying, since the commercial-scale production of oil in the region has after all just been launched. It has yet to be fully ramped up.43 The failure to take countermeasures will give rise to a horrible environmental catastrophe in this area. The results of the analysis of the water samples are presented in a press release that forms the subject of a large number of reports in the media in Germany and abroad.
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→ Further information:
Where does the contamination come from?
Water is of elementary importance in drilling. It serves as the basis for rinsing solutions.44 This drilling fluids plays a key role in the drilling process because it ensures a disturbance-free pursuing of it. “Drilling fluids” refer to the liquids circulating during the drilling of the hole. These liquids transport the ’cuttings’ upwards. They also cool the drill bit and shaft, and secure the wall of the drill hole against collapsing. Chemicals are added to the rinse solutions when drilling in non-firm sediments, which in turn characterize the area being described.45 These chemicals force the formation of a filter crust that seals the porous layers of the rock.46 This prevents a collapsing of the drill hole. The amount of drilling fluids is to be minimized. The solution permeates the porous layers until the point that they are sealed. The solution has another function. It is to preclude an uncontrolled seepage of fluids or gases from the rock into the drill hole. Reasons of costs also dictate the configuration of the solution’s accordance with the respective geological conditions.
To prevent the corrosion of the drill shaft, an oxygen-free environment has to be maintained. The danger of corrosion of steel is negligibly small at pH values of between 10 and 12.5. To accordingly increase the pH values, sodium, calcium and potassium alkalis are added to the solution. In cases in which the pH values are lower in the solution, phosphates, borates, chromates or special tensides have to be added to the solution. The alkalis include KCI (stabilizes clay) and potashes (K2CO3).
A number of solution additives have two or more functions to fulfill. The drilling fluids’ composition accordingly varies according to the material being drilled: be it bedrock, loose rock, sediments or sedimentary rock. Clay and argillaceous rock are found in and around Thar Jath. This requires the stabilization of drilling holes through the addition of sodium chloride, calcium chloride or potassium sulfate. These additions replace the sodium ions found in clays with potassium or calcium. The result is the reduction of the clays’ absorption of water. Potassium-based drilling fluids are especially important when drilling in clays and argillaceous rocks. This is because they optimally prevent the absorption of water—due to the anti-osmotic characteristics of potassium ions—in formations whose makeup is unknown.
The extremely great potential dangers emanating from the use of chemicals in drill drilling fluids cause it to be strictly regulated by internationally-applicable guidelines. Augmenting this peril is another technique employed when extracting oil. Highly-concentrated salts-containing solutions are injected into the oil deposits, so as to increase the pressure in them. The crude oil and the previously-injected salts-containing solutions are pumped to the surface, where the crude oil is separated from the so-called “produced water”. The extraction of each liter of crude oil requires the employment of from 3 to 9.5 liters of produced water47 — an incredible amount. This produced water often has a higher content of salt than does ocean water. The produced water also often contains noxious metals and radioactive materials.48 The general practice is to inject the produced water—via another injection hole—deep enough into the ground, with this meaning its being transported to layers of rocks that are far away from potable water.49 Should, however, the produced waster be disposed of via in-feeds into surface waters, or via shallow drilling into layers containing ground water, the risk arises that this polluted water will—via wells—be incorporated into humans’ food cycle.
That Sudan has this problem has been well-known for quite some time. This problem was the topic at a conference held in Juba in 2006. The conference was about revamping the production of oil in the era commenced by the conclusion of the peace agreement, and marked by a possible participation in the industry by Southern Sudan.50 This conference showed that Chevron, the US petroleum giant, used the proven—but expensive—procedure ensuring the safe disposal of produced water upon its drilling of Sudan’s first oil wells in the period until 1983. Chevron injected the contaminated water into deeply-laying layers of ground. It was Chevron’s successors in the country’s oil industry that developed the methods yielding the damaging of the environment now becoming apparent to all.51 The oil field at Thar Jath is estimated to contain 149.1 million barrels.52 A barrel of oil is comprised of 159 liters. Taking a mean of 7 liters of produced water per liter of oil, and extrapolating that to account for the entire potential of oil to be transported yields the figure of 1,659,483.3 million liters of waste water to be disposed of.
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On March 18, 2008, Sign of Hope sends a letter to the operator of the refinery in Thar Jath. The letter requests the operator to make a statement presenting its position on the results of the tests. This operator is the White Nile Petroleum Operating Company Ltd. (WNPOC). This consortium is based in Khartoum. Some 67.875% of its shares are held by Petronas Caligari Overseas, a subsidiary of Petronas, a company owned by the government of Malaysia; with 24.125% being owned by the India-based Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) Videsh Ltd.; and 8% by Sudapet (Sudan National Petroleum Corporation), the Southern Sudan state oil company.53 Petronas’ holding of two thirds of the consortium’s equity arose from its acquisition in 2003 of the shares held by Lundin, a Swedish company.54 Petronas is the most important partner of the government of Sudan in the area of oil production and processing. This applies to all areas of licensing. The company is thus the most influential stakeholder in oil in Sudan.55
Sign of Hope’s letter courteously requests the operators to comment upon the results of the collection of samples of water, and to elucidate how the wastes arising in the production process are disposed of. The operators are also called upon to detail the measures they plan to institute to provide the residents of Rier with safe water. The operators do not respond.
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On March 28th, in response to urgings by Spain and Germany, the Human Rights Council of the United Nations publishes a resolution calling for the integration of the rights to have safe drinking water and proper sanitary facilities into the catalog of human rights. The resolution is in response to a report issued by the UN High Commissioner. It states that more than a billion people in the world have been denied access to safe water, and that 2.6 billion people have to endure not having sanitary facilities. The UN High Commissioner has issued an urgent call for the recognition of the right to have clean water as a human right.
An independent expert panel was commissioned to compile a listing of the best practices employed in the procurement of safe and clean water and the arrangement of sanitary facilities. The commission was for three years. It comprised the pursuing of a dialogue with all political and societal stakeholders, with these to include national governments, the UN, and academic institutions and NGOs—and, in this case, especially on-site ones.
Experts on water have been fighting for decades for the recognition of the human right to clean water. These experts view the resolution as constituting an important step towards the achievement of this right.56 The outcome of the process of identification of rights—now that it has finally been instituted—is to be a legally enforceable right to clean water for each person on this planet.
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Sign of Hope commissions in July, 2008, Hella Rüskamp, a hydro-geologist, with the conducting of a study on the causes of the contamination of drinking water in the Thar Jath and Mala regions of oil prospecting. The objective of the study is to document or refute the possible connection between the activities of companies that are prospecting for oil (test drilling, treatment and disposal of produced water) and the contamination of groundwater by primarily salts and heavy metals.
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Everyone expects the final race of this year’s Grand Prix season, to be held on November 2nd in Sao Paulo, to produce a world championship for Lewis Hamilton. Hamilton’s car is a McLaren-Mercedes. Hamilton is in fifth place during most of the race. This will suffice to put Hamilton atop the year’s rankings of the drivers in Formula 1, and thus past Felipe Massa, a Brazilian driver who is leading this race in his Ferrari. The race is somewhat boring—until the second to last round, in which it experiences an unexpected development. Rain starts to fall, causing the most of the drivers to change their tires. While this is occurring, Sebastian Vettel, a German driver, guns his Toro Rosso past Hamilton, surprising him in the process. Goodbye, world championship! Hamilton’s best result will now be to rack up the same total points as Massa, who has, however, achieved a greater number of victories this year. This means that Massa is on track to nab the world championship. Hamilton dogs Vettel meter-by-meter, but he doesn’t have any way of re-passing the Vettel, who is an incredibly strong driver. Is his dream really over? Ferrari’s team in the pits is getting ready to celebrate. One hundred thousand spectators are cheering on their country-person Massa. But then, in what is practically the very last moment of the race, Hamilton and Vettel race past Timo Glock, whose Toyota was in fourth place. Hamilton goes from being sixth to fifth—and thus wins the world championship. He is 23 years old. This makes him the youngest world champion in Formula 1 history. His victory represents the first time since 1999 that a car with a motor manufactured by Mercedes has won the championship.57
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At Sign of Hope we are working at top speed to prepare a further documentation of the contamination found and of its causes. This documentation is to back up the findings of the previous one. The organization’s research includes monitoring the Internet. It causes us to encounter the Facebook page of a person working for Central Processing Facility (CPF) in Thar Jath. The page shows us that the gigantic facility—which we thought was a refinery—is actually a plant processing crude oil. At it, the crude is separated from the produced water and sands. The crude is then pumped down a pipeline to refineries in the north, at which it is further processed. An evaluation of the satellite photographs reveals that there are some 70 oil wells in the oil field. They feed the oil to the CPF. This does not include abandoned drill holes, next to which are also to be found pits containing the hazardous drilling fluids.
Sign of Hope has a discussion with one of Hella Rüskamp’s staff members. The staff member and Klaus Stieglitz have to travel to Thar Jath as soon as possible. The samples have to be gathered this time by an expert, so as to preclude the arising of any doubts as to the conclusive nature of the samples of water. The forms to be used for the logging of the collection of samples are thoroughly and precisely prepared. We use the GPS data on the sites of the samples made in February to decide where we want to gather them this time. Our approach is to take samples from other wells yielding potable water, from swamps and from sites containing produced water. All of these are to be in or near to the CPF. We also start looking for the waste pits that a worker in the oil fields had described to us in February.
We land on November 12th on a bumpy bush runway in Southern Sudan. Accompanying us on this trip is a correspondent of the “Deutsche Presse Agentur” (“dpa”) news agency. Our area of investigation starts north of the city of Leer and extends some 75 kilometers northwards from there. The White Nile forms the eastern geographic and hydrological border of our area. The first sample will be taken some 55 kilometers from the Nile. Scheduled is the taking of samples from a total of 12 wells, and, as well, the gathering of seven samples of surface waters. Of these, it is to be assumed that they might contain residual contaminants. Four of these surface waters are located in the immediate vicinity of the Central Processing Facility (CPF) of Thar Jath.58 In the case of several wells, the complaints voiced by local residents as to the water occasioned our taking of samples. The hand-operated pumps are also subjected to an appraisal. This reveals that they were all of a kind common in India, that they are all sealed against permeation from outside, and that they all have been placed in a concrete base. A direct contamination from the surface of the well itself is thus to be excluded. The results show that the level of salt found in the wells markedly increases as you move from east to west.
The analysis of the samples taken from potable water pumps in Rier on November 14, 2008 shows their having a total salt content of 6420 and 6170 milligrams per liter of water (mg/l). The USA’s Environmental Protection Agency has set a ceiling of 500 mg/l. These samples thus exceed this limit 12fold. A salt content this high drains the body of its water. The resultant dehydration can be deadly. Required to survive it is the immediately supplying of clean water to the body. The samples of water taken in Rier also evince strontium; with one sample also containing lead and traces of cadmium.
But where is this clean water supposed to come from? Many of the residents of Rier, which has a total population of 5,000, fetch water—a moldy stinky swill—from the swamps. They say that it’s better than the salty water produced from the wells. “This water tastes salty and causes throat aches,” says a local resident in Rier. “You get skin rashes and diarrhea,” reports this mother of three children.
A tanker truck containing water comes around occasionally—often less than once a week. This is paid for by the oil companies. The truck holds up to 20,000 liters of water. Twenty thousand liters for 5,000 people translates into 4 liters per person per week—at temperatures of 40 degrees in the shade. The arrival of the tanker truck often causes fights to break out among the people. A woman points to her chin and relates: “This is where I got hit. I wanted to get some water from the tanker truck. People really fight for the water.” Everybody wants to get some of the precious liquid for her or his family. And everybody is ready to wrestle, hit and kick for it. This horrible sight is the result of machinations of the oil industry.
The two wells in Rier are not the only ones causing problems. All of the 12 wells from which we took samples showed contamination. Of them, five are so seriously contaminated that they should be closed down or remediated. These five are the two wells in Rier, the one near Mar, and the ones in Bouw and Duar.
