About 170 kilometres to the south of Brega near Zaltun field, there appears to be a lake casting a picturesque natural image. That lake is actually a pool of oil waste that has spilled from Sirte Oil and Gas Company.
The field, where the Libyan state drilled the first cost-effective oil well in the early 1950s, produces about 58,000 barrels of oil accompanied by 300,000 barrels of salt water, which is separated then discarded in the desert.
About 170 kilometres to the south of Brega near Zaltun field, there appears to be a lake casting a picturesque natural image. That lake is actually a pool of oil waste that has spilled from Sirte Oil and Gas Company.
The field, where the Libyan state drilled the first cost-effective oil well in the early 1950s, produces about 58,000 barrels of oil accompanied by 300,000 barrels of salt water, which is separated then discarded in the desert.
The older the oil wells, the more water they produce. The water is often tainted by large quantities of oil wastes from processing; which, over decades, has created a river of salt water and crude oil.
The situation is even worse in the fields adjacent to residential areas such as Nafoura field, located between the three oases towns: Jalu, Jikharra and Awjila, about 15 km far from Jikharra. Eight main stations have produced a number of such manmade “lakes”.
Tarnished Jewels
Saidi, Adakkleh, Rattab Wadi, Jedgh, Tids, Tselo and Nakfoush are names of the varieties of dates produced by the three oases towns and marketed within the country to meet the needs of citizens. In addition, people of Jalu cultivate quantities of tomatoes covering part of the market need during the winter season. Environmental activists confirm that these crops have been damaged by lakes of waste water.
“Because of these lakes, migratory birds feeding on palm insects die and, consequently, dates are affected,” said environmental activist Ahmed Hassan, a resident in Jikharra. The lakes carry pollutants that seep into the soil and may access groundwater used in the oases area, he added.
Hassan calls for the use of safe methods when drilling new wells, such as recovery of oil leaked with the accompanying water, injection of this water into the ground and scraping of salt. “The National Oil Corporation must impose taxes against the offending companies and give incentives to departments that maintain environmental safety. The new Libyan Constitution must include provisions that guarantee environmental protection,” he said.
Every morning, Abdullah Ghandour puts on his uniform and leaves Jalu to go to Nafoura Field. He is an engineer who has been living in the city and working in the field for 11 years and confirms the seriousness of these lakes. “Wastewater is accompanied by some spilled oil, which in turn, contains light compounds that evaporate in high temperatures such as those prevailing in Jalu (47° C) during summertime.”
Ghandour owns a palm farm and has two children, Aya, five and Awad, three. He recalls his father lamenting, “The color of dates has changed. They no longer glitter like gold.” Ghandour adds that the dates have become more atrophied and withered and often the whole season is affected.
Black Clouds Over Health
Oil-producing companies burn toxic gases causing black smoke or the release of gases that form dark clouds. Ghandour and his peers used to see the clouds over the area and waited for rain to purify the air. He remembers once seeing a bus carrying female students in Jikharra – where the German Winter Shell Company drilled wells in the farms – speeding towards the hospital with students who had fainted as a result of inhaling hydrogen sulphide gas, the doctors confirmed.
Several years ago, Shell carried out prospection operations in the so-called green belt of Jalu, where palm farms exist. Some young people confronted it and obstructed its work, but soldiers of Oil Facilities Protection intervened and opened fire, killing a young man. The people of the city set up a mourning tent for more than a month in the spot where the young man was killed. The Gaddafi regime feared the escalation of the situation and sent an official delegation, headed by the former Prime Minister, Baghdadi Mahmudi, to contain the situation.
Ghandour remembers the prime minster assuring the safety of having oil wells near homes, citing Texas as an example. An old man replied, “Make our city like Texas and then drill wells in safe and modern methods.”
As oil prices rise and Libyan oil production increases to reach nearly 1.5 million barrels a day, stories of infertility and malformations of newborns have begun to circulate. It is difficult to verify such cases in the absence of official reports and the lack of a free flow of information from the Gaddafi era.
“We have neither official reports nor statistics on cases of infertility in other cities to compare them”, said Hassan. “We have established a society for environmental protection and have started our meetings.”
Waiting for the situation to change, Ghandour, meanwhile continues working between the palm and the oil fields, in the hope that Aya and Awad will one day live in a healthy and clean environment.
