The Political Economy of Hydrocarbon Pollution: Assessing Socio-Ecological Sustainability of Nigeria s Niger Delta Region

Agaptus Nwozor, Jacob Audu and Joseph Adama
Additional contact information
Agaptus Nwozor: Department of Political Science and International Relations, Landmark University, Omu Aran, Kwara State, Nigeria,
Jacob Audu: Department of Political Science and International Studies, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria,

International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, 2019, vol. 9, issue 1, 7-14

Abstract: The Niger Delta region, which is the hydrocarbon basket of Nigeria, appears to be sitting on an environmental time bomb due to degradation from widespread hydrocarbon pollution. The major sources of environmental degradation in the Niger Delta are oil spillage, gas flaring and improper disposal of wastes from oil drilling operations. Presently, it is estimated that there are over 5,000 massively polluted sites in the Niger Delta. Drawing data from secondary sources, this paper finds that despite the enormity of environmental pollution and its deleterious effects on the socio-economic wellbeing of the Niger Delta region, there is no implementable blueprint or policy for remediation. The paper links the economic cost of environmental pollution to the pervasive poverty and other socio-ecological crises that envelope the region in a smoke of underdevelopment. The paper therefore advocates a clear national remediation policy to sustainably deal with the degraded environment of the region.

Keywords: Environmental degradation; hydrocarbon pollution; remediation policy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 P48 Q35 Q52 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1) Track citations by RSS feed

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.econjournals.com/index.php/ijeep/article/download/7058/4087 (application/pdf)
https://www.econjournals.com/index.php/ijeep/article/view/7058/4087 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eco:journ2:2019-01-2

Access Statistics for this article

International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy is currently edited by Ilhan Ozturk

More articles in International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy from Econjournals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Ilhan Ozturk ().