In a renewed bid to address the agelong negative impact of oil exploration and production in the Niger Delta region, The National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) says it will soon launch a vessel that will respond to oil spill cases in the maritime area in the region.

Zonal Head of NOSDRA in the South-South, Cyrus Nkangwung told Kristina Report in Port Harcourt that the vessel named ‘Recovery One’ when in operation will recover oil spills from the surface of the waterways into the vessel.

“The boat is Recovery One, it is a boat that is actually designed to recover spills in the maritime area in any of the big rivers. That is why I actually went there today to inspect the vessel and any moment from now it will be operational.”

“Once the vessel is operational, the waterways will be safe. Even if there are spills you see on the sea, you clear it off. That will help sanitizing the whole area against the effect of oil spill”.

He said this was part of measures to remediate the Niger Delta environment to make it safe, habitable and economically viable, from years of environmental degradation, stressing that the cleanup will save the vegetation and aqua lives on the water ways.

“The arrangement we have made, we will go round with the navy and see where there are spills we respond to it, d fingerprinting of the spill and then give the bill to the people that are responsible. So, that is what we will do going forward from now.”

Nkagwung further explained that the vessel was fitted with gadgets to deal with different issues related with oils spills challenges along the waterways in the region. “We have things in it that remove oil from the surface of the water as it goes around because we have a very big tank there that is like a barge. And we have also booms that we can use from the boat but what we are guarding against is if you see spill in the middle of the river, if you boom the shoreline it will not allow the oil to get to impact the vegetation, protecting the vegetation, and we take the time to skim it out.”