Oil, power and a sign of hope. Klaus Stieglitz
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.
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