Community Perception and Adaptive Response to Recurrent Oil Spills: Evidence from Ewelesuo, Nembe Creek, and Oluasiri Communities in Nembe, Bayelsa State, Nigeria

Repeated oil spillage in the Niger Delta, especially in the Nembe Local Government Area of Bayelsa State, has ultimately resulted in a permanent state of ecological crisis, livelihood loss, and loss of institutional hope. This paper aimed to analyse community perception and the ways that the community has adapted to oil spills in Ewelesuo, Nembe Creek, and Oluasiri. A mixed-methods design aided the collection of the data by means of 387 household surveys, six FGDs, and eight KIIs. Descriptive statistics, chi-square test, Spearman correlation, logistic regression, PCA, and cluster analysis were used as quantitative forms of analysis. The findings included that in relation to spill frequency; 89.7% of the respondents indicated that they had frequent spells and there were strong associations between the frequency of spills in perception and the changes in the type of livelihood (r = 0.614, p < 0.001) and the risk perception and the behaviour of storage of water (r = 0.473, p = 0.003). Regression indeed indicated no significant predictors of reporting behaviour, whereas logistic regression indicated that reporting behaviour was suppressed relative to institutional mistrust. The strategies of adaptation at the community and the individual level were identified through PCA, and spatial variance in the resilience was identified through clustering. Health risks, the exclusion of compensation, and coping with indigenous measures were affirmed through qualitative data. The paper brings contributions to the environmental risk theory in that, under structural oppression, it is not true that what is perceived would always be acted upon. It proposes local management, a grassroots anti-surveillance, and the integration of local knowledge into the policy of remediation. Institutional change and social justice are needed to deal with ecological depression.