October 7th 2019 (Nyamilepedia) – A youth group from South Sudan’s Rubkona country have condemned what they said is a reckless dumping of oil wastes in their land saying government actions and those of oil firms have resulted in threatening lives of local communities.
This came a week after an oil spillage near unity oilfields in Rubkona sparked concerns from local communities who said their life was threatened by the reckless actions of both state and foreign oil companies operating in the former unity.
In a statement issued on Monday and extended to Nyamilepedia, the Rubkona youth said
they condemn the reckless dumping of oil waste saying it has resulted in different damages that now threatens the people in the area.
“We the youth of greater Rubkotna County has condemn[ed] in the strongest term possible the spillages of the oil which kill[ed] more than 50 animals and damage[d] the crops [which] amounts to 300 sacks of maize in the areas of Budang county’s Roriak Payam,” a statement signed by the group’s leader Koang Kuany Bol partly read.
South Sudan’s sole source of money is the oil accounting for 98 percent of the country’s revenue but the youth group urged the government to cease oil production if the situation which affects the life of local communities continues.
“The Youth of greater Rubkona County are requesting the government and the oil company GPOC to take the oil out from our land and leave us free instead of killing us together with our animals and destroying the crops which are our main source for survival,” the statement added.
“The rupture of oil’s pipeline spilled in the area of 2 kilo meter squares has affected every living things in the areas including grass, forest, vegetable and fruits. The swamps area has flooded and took the oil to the water points and the rivers tributaries, where animals and the local are drinking.
“These rivers are contaminated and killed every living in those Streams Rivers, since the start of rupture oil’s pipeline, almost a month. To make it worse, the people in the areas are continue of drinking water direct from those contaminated Rivers which has oil spillages.
The statement said no consultation had been carried out with the local communities on how to dump the oil wastes saying the companies had “just dumped the chemical wastes to any areas they find for themselves and no awareness to the residents, so that they know the danger of the chemical waste.
“Therefore, we the Youth and the residents of Leek community of greater Rubkona, blames the oil company, the Greater Pioneer GPOC, and the government of poor management of the oil environment.
“Because the supervisors who are employed for the safety of Oil Company are children of ministers and commanders who don’t spare time to stay in the field, where oil wells are drilled.
“They only stay in Juba and spent most of their time there. Even if they come to the field, they only stay in Unity oil camp, they rarely go to the areas of oil wells where pipelines is connected to different wells.
“They don’t go where oil activities are taking place, they only visit the areas once with foreign engineers to assess the situation for a few hours and go back to unity field. They don’t leave people behind to supervise the oil activities for daily supervision, which was the reason why the ruptures of the pipeline happened and took long time before it discovered.
