“It’s a terrible place to be in, it’s not habitable, but people live there because they have no choice,” says Iheanyi Ohiaeri, a citizen of Nigeria (Tunnicliffe 20-22). People like Iheanyi live in devastating conditions, day and night. The fact that most inhabitants don’t even get electricity for light during the night while citizens of one of the most oil rich places in the world, should blow your mind. Nigerians don’t have access to the plentiful oil surrounding them and the horrible conditions they live in because of such drillings is killing them. Their environment, economy, and daily conditions all reveal the suffering citizens endure as a result of oil. “Produced” water which comes from a well, is brought up along with oil and gas containing toxins such as: benzene, arsenic, lead, toluene, and varying amounts of radioactive pollutants (Haerens 27-32). …show more content…
Specifically, drinking water has been found to contain 900 times the amount of benzene, a known carcinogen, than the World Health Organization’s (NGO) limit (Tunnicliffe 20-22). Contaminated water can kill Nigerians and events such as the Chevron gas rig that exploded, killed two workers. Still burning a month later, Chevron responded by saying they didn’t know how to put the fire out, proving how the irresponsible actions of many oil companies puts innocent people at risk. There is a wide variety of dangerous affects of oil drilling. Some like exploding gas rigs are immediate but oil pollution is a problem that has a longer affect. Oil pollution in a region of the Delta called Ogoniland would take 30 years to clean up (Tunnicliffe