By William Madouk
Three ministers request the Council of states to wait for an environmental audit to validate whether the cases of birth defects in oil-producing areas are linked to oil pollution.
Council of States had summoned the national ministers for Petroleum, Health, and Environment to answer queries on ‘rising cases of deformed births and other health concerns in oil-producing areas.’
Hon. Pout Kang, the minister of Petroleum, told Parliament that in September last year, his docket contracted three top audit companies to carry out environmental audits in the country’s oil fields.
They are: Envirocare and Bridge Consult, Panloy and SGS Company, and Envag Associates Kenya.
According to Kang, the work started on November 15, after a delay attributed to floods and the withholding of funds by oil companies.
“All three contractors have submitted their draft reports with testing results and interpretation, which are being reviewed by the consultants and environmental committee before the final submission,” he said.
“Compliance or non-compliance is only ascertained following an audit. I am not saying there are no deformities; I am not saying there are no cases; We will get authority when the results are out,” he added.
Puot stated that the country and the Upper House would be in a better position to make decisions when birth abnormalities are scientifically associated with oil spills.
“How do you answer to that? You can answer that scientifically, and we in the MOP don’t have that authority to respond to you until the results are scientifically given to us,” he noted.
Ms. Yolanda Awel Deng, the national minister of health, said birth defects are caused by many aspects, for instance, genetic inheritance and environmental factors.
Other factors include viral and parasitic infections, as well as nutrition deficiencies, among others.
“We are scientific-based ministries; we have to build scientific-based facts and data. We have to do research and make sure that there is some sort of evidence for it,” Awel said.
“If I were to go to international court with WHO and tell them we have birth defects in my country and it’s because of oil pollution, I would be told to prove it, and how am I going to prove it?” she added.
According to her, genetic, nutritional, infectious, and environmental factors must be ruled out in the results to support the claim. She also adds that fertilizers also contribute to giving birth to deformed children.
The minister of Environment and Forestry, Josephine Napwon, said they are collaborating with the other two ministries in regard to the contracted companies.
Napwon also said her docket has been receiving reports on pollution in the oil field from the exploration of new and abandoned wells but has no capacity to carry out an independent audit due to a lack of funds.
While Mary Ayen, the first deputy speaker of the council of state, appealed to the petroleum minister to rescue people from the challenging impacts of oil pollution,
She said the delay in auditing is tantamount to a delay in getting to the root causes of birth flaws in oil-producing areas.
After listening to the presentation from three ministers, the members of the Council of States articulated their satisfaction with the responses given by Kang, Napwon, and Awel.