The oil industry in South Sudan has left a landscape pocked with hundreds of open waste pits, the water and soil contaminated with toxic chemicals and heavy metals, according to four environmental reports obtained by The Associated Press. The reports also describe alarming birth defects, miscarriages and other health problems among residents of the region and soldiers who have been stationed there. There’s been no clear link established between the pollution and the health problems. But community leaders and lawmakers in the oil-rich areas in Upper Nile and Unity states accuse South Sudan’s government and the two main oil consortiums, the Chinese-led Dar Petroleum Operating Co. and the Greater Pioneer Operating Co., of neglecting the issue and trying to silence those who have tried to expose the problem. An AP reporter was detained and questioned by government officials and government security forces working on behalf of the oil companies.
SOURCE: VOA