Apart from the common marine spills, the oil spills may also occur on land. Oil spills may be due to let-off of petroleum products from tankers, and offshore platforms spill of already refined products such as petrol, kerosene, and by-products. Heavy products used by large ships include airplane fuels, the spill of any oily refuse and the waste oil. These oil spills are common in most parts of the world such as Kuwait, United States, Kern County, California, Iraq, Persian Gulf, and the Gulf of Mexico. Other places are Trinidad and Tobago, Uzbekistan, Iran, parts of Africa such as South Africa and Angola. The effects of oil spills are greatly felt by the affected parts. The oil spills may also result in fire and aggregated explosions. In Kuwait, the fires produced dangerous gases that caused respiratory diseases, and the explosion killed eleven of the workers. It also contaminates drinking water.
Oil spills in Africa occurs mostly in Nigeria, whereby petroleum is its chief revenue earner and export. The extent of these spills is so immense that from 1976 to 1996 out of a total of 2.4 million barrels, 40835 spilled. Oil spills are a common event in Nigeria. Half of all spills occur due to tanker and pipeline accidents. Other causes are due to damage and oil production operations, with most of the spills being accounted for by insufficient or non-functional production equipment. Wearing out of pipelines and tankers involves the breaking or leaking of senile production infrastructures that often lack inspection and maintenance from the experts.
Sabotage is carried out through bunkering, in which the saboteur taps the pipeline. When drawing out, the pipeline is damaged or destroyed. Sabotage is commonly related to oil siphoning (Burger 1994, p. 46).
Oil spillage has a key impact on the bio network to which it is exposed and may constitute ecocide. Vast tracts of the forests, which are particularly vulnerable to oil, have been destroyed. A 5 to 10% of Nigerian mangrove forest ecosystems have been cleared out by increased population or oil. The forest that occupied more than 7,400 km² of land has also been cleared out and is no longer there.
Spills in unsettled areas do spread on large places; hence, destroying plantation and pollution of the underground water sources and soil. The depletion of dissolved oxygen by the bacterial organism incorporated to consume the hydrocarbons brings about by the death of water animals that depend on them for food such as fish. In farmer communities, once in a year's supply of meals will get destroyed. Because of the careless nature of oil operations in the Delta, the environment is growing increasingly uninhabitable. Individuals around these areas are affected by skin problems and breathing difficulties. Many have lost their basic human rights such as a clean environment, access to food, clean water, and the ability to work in such areas. The Nigerian policy of the oil industry is feeble and hardly ever enforced, allowing, in essence, the industry to self-regulate hence very undependable for effective performance. .The water hyacinth has found its trend into the Niger River, depleting off both sunlight and oxygen to the organisms that live in the river (MięDzynarodowa Organizacja Morska 2004, p. 86).
When water hyacinth grows into the ecosystem, it competes with the other plants for growth factors; hence, poor growth. The deprivation of food, oxygen and energy means of the plants, some will not survive, and their population density will go down beyond the point they cannot return, creating a hostile environment. Onto the loss of water, water hyacinth also absorbs and gets much of the oxygen that is necessary for all marine organisms. The Nigerian government is trying to curb these problems by the use of acts and regulations such as the mineral oil safety regulations of 1963. This process was to deal with the release of inflammable gases and impose penalties for non-compliance, which was proven effective for 5years and later neglected. The second was the petroleum regulations in 1967 that prevents, and is strongly against the release of crude oil products into water bodies and make provisions for precautions just in case the same happens. That regulation took effect and has been followed correctly though when theses incidences happen no laws govern against the offenders. 1969. The regulation requires the owners of these companies to acquire up to date machines, and also, good working machines; this was to curb corrosion excuses. As expected the companies followed that rule then and most of the companies have not yet upgraded till date. The oil in navigable waters acts of 1968, which prohibits the release of petroleum containing oil in the inland water and also territorial waters. The oil terminal dues act of 1969 that prevents oil release top is of the continental shelf along any oil terminal. Another act deals with the construction requirements for oil tanks that were the petroleum refining regulations of 1974 (International Maritime Organization 2005, p. 19).
Te association of gas re-injection of 1979 that deals with the utilization of exhausts gases instead of release into the environment. In 1980 that rule was strictly followed but the companies did the refining of the gases partly. The country is also using bioremediation strategies against these accidents. This process becomes a very cost effective, though time costing. It can be done by; Bioaugmentation, whereby there is the introduction of oil-degrading bacteria into the affected areas. It is highly effective since the bacteria depletes the oil at large extents, and also, multiplies. Another method is by use of biostimulation. The organic methods are quite effective but take a long time to complete the work. The oil degrading bacteria becomes a threat to the aquatic animals after they have completely wiped out the oil (Fingas 2011, p. 82).
Some of these management skills are barely effect like the bioremediation that requires months to take effect. In the course of that time, the oil will have already caused more damage. They can also get quite expensive since after the cleanup then they need to be sifted out. Several improvements should be made to curb these spills in order to prevent them effectively. The recommendations are the national government; non-governmental organizations and parastatals should work in conjunction and from meteorological stations. These meteorological stations should form along the shoreline or the coastal waters. Though conjunctions will be necessary, it will less effective since as seen before they lack to cooperate. The introduction of localized spill response centers along the coastlines, and the use of data collected by airborne system will help in taking care of oil spills. These localized centers were there and were not effective due to lack of equipment’s for the job. There should be an introduction of independent policing units only set to keep an eye on companies causing oil spillages. These units should be well set for a quick response towards oil spills. More capital support should be provided to the stakeholders in the oil industry to facilitate further research development and used on oil spill models in the country.
Ineffectiveness of leadership / leading in crisis and decision making )and crisis Management
The effectiveness of a leader is essential for any operation taken since it will determine the outcome of the operation. Hence, failure of crisis management can result in harming the stakeholders connected to the organization. For instance, The Oil spill had a poor leadership management since they failed to come up with effective strategies that will halt the oil spill. The result of the poor leadership skills resulted to pollution of aquatic environment since many animals living under water lacked enough oxygen, hence dying. Also, the water was polluted and became dirty, making it difficult for aquatic animals to live and roam freely. Lastly, lack of leadership skills resulted in making the company to lose a lot of oil, and money, a situation which made the stakeholders experience huge loss.
Bibliography
Burger, J. (1994). Before and after an oil spill: the Arthur Kill. New Brunswick, NJ, Rutgers
Fingas, M. F. (2011). Oil spill science and technology prevention, response, and clean up.
Burlington, MA, Gulf Professional Pub./Elsevier. http://site.ebrary.com/id/10429798
International Maritime Organization. (2005). Combating oil spills.
MięDzynarodowaOrganizacjaMorska. (2004). Bioremediation in marine oil spills: guidance
document for decision making and implementation of bioremediation in marine oil spills. London, IMO.
Nardo, D. (2011). Oil spills. Detroit, Lucent Books.
