Assessment of impact significance of oil spill in the Niger Delta, Nigeria

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International Journal of Development Research

Assessment of impact significance of oil spill in the Niger Delta, Nigeria

Abstract: 

Oil pollution is a serious threat to the bio-physical environment and consequently the socio-economic life of the people living within the oil bearing environment. This paper examined the significance of oil contamination on the socio-economic life of the people of Mgbede in Rivers State, Ekakpamre and Kwale in Delta State, with a view to determining the need for mitigation. Survey was conducted on the communities and with a well-structured questionnaire the data for the study were generated. Twelve (12) very simple and direct questions that constituted the impact indicators in the key areas of impact were rated against the impact dimensions of *Frequency, Magnitude, Significance, Risk and Extent *using the five-level Likert scale as follows: very Low (1); minimal (2); moderate (3); high (4); very high (5). The mean, which is the test value was calculated and used to test the hypothesis. The null hypothesis formulated was to determine the severity of impact on the host communities under study. One sample t-test (OST) was used to test the significance of the perceptions of the respondents on the degree of damages resulting from oil spill in the study locations. The p-values for all the five impact dimensions were found to be less than 0.05 (p<0.05), and so, the null hypothesis was rejected while the alternative, which is the research hypothesis, which hitherto stated that the damages resulting from oil spill are significant to warrant mitigation was accepted. Mitigation was therefore needful and hereby recommended.

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