Far from US Gulf, Nigerian thieves mop up oil spills
Using two large yellow tubes to funnel polluted water into his small wooden boat, Nigerian teenager Daniel Muukor helps to "mop up" the latest oil spill in the creeks of the Niger Delta.
But Muukor is not part of Nigeria's federal response effort to contain the spill -- the 15-year-old is stealing the oil to sell on the black market.
The only evidence of a clean-up effort in the creeks of Bodo is an abandoned orange containment boom the length of two canoes floating nearby, which residents say was placed there by oil company workers, not the government.
No robotic submarines to contain the spill, no high-profile government investigation into the cause, and no compensation handed out to affected communities.
This is Nigeria, not the United States.
Daily news coverage of the U.S. government's all-out fight to contain the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the country's largest environmental disaster, only reminds Nigerians of the type of arsenal rich countries have at their disposal.
"In the U.S., they have a response from the government. But in Nigeria, there is no response," said John Nyiedah, assistant secretary for the town's main youth group.
"They keep saying they will come today, they will come tomorrow. But they never come."
Millions of gallons of oil have poured in the U.S. Gulf since an April 20 offshore rig blast killed 11 workers and blew out a BP Plc well.
to mop up
stírat, nabírat, vyčistit
all-out fight
totální/maximální boj/nasazení
containment boom - plovoucí zábrana
compensation - odškodnění
oil spill - ropná skvrna