South Sudan ignores reports on oil pollution, birth defects

The oil rich area around Paloch, a city in Upper Nile state, is dotted with exposed pools of toxic water. A chemical junkyard in Gumry town, about 45 minutes from Paloch, was strewn with overflowing containers of black sludge that seeped into the ground and were surrounded by toxic waste, when an AP reporter visited in September 2018.

Six had lost babies in the last 10 years. And all of them knew someone who had struggled to conceive, had miscarriages or had given birth to a child with deformities such as stunted limbs or concave skulls.The two earliest surveys were performed in 2013 and 2016 by South Sudan’s government. They found oil pollution across the region and soil and water samples showed contamination, including mercury levels in the water were seven times what is permissible under U.S.

South Sudan’s oil ministry instructed Dar Petroleum to move ahead with the proposed clean-up, according to a December 2018 letter seen by the AP. But Rick Steiner, an oil pollution adviser in Alaska, said there is substantial medical literature linking hydrocarbon exposure with birth defects.South Sudan’s petroleum minister, Awow Daniel Chuang, said until there’s scientific evidence tying health problems to oil pollution, no conclusions should be drawn.

Geer said the company told him the child’s problems were genetic, and not caused by oil pollution. But they never shared any test results with him.

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