Shell fenceline communities speak out

1 June 2005

Shell's Annual General Meeting is an important opportunity for Shell's fenceline neighbours to get their voices heard.

Each year we support people who live next to Shell installations and projects to put their concerns to Shell.

These are their stories.

Margie Richards - USA

Margie led a campaign to get Shell to relocate people in Louisana. She is a winner of the Goldman Environment Prize.

As a young girl I sat looking at the beauty of the plantations and the farmland. This was replaced by pollution, smoke stacks, flares and noise.

Margie Richard

Interview with Margie Richard >

Siziwe Khanyile - South Africa

Siziwe works on an project measuring air quality for groundWork (Friends of the Earth South Africa).

We're not going to be ignored. We're just going to keep at it. Until some sort of change does happen.

Siziwe Khanyile, groundWork

Interview with Siziwe Khanyile >

Desmond D'Sa - South Africa

Desmond is campaigning to stop the high air pollution levels near the Shell owned refinery in South Durban.

I want to make a difference. I have no space for hatred and bitterness. Hatred and bitterness hold you back.

Desmond D'Sa, Wentworth Development Forum and South
Durban Community Environmental Alliance

Tashiica Miles - USA

Tashiica works for a health education programme for people living next to Shell in Texas.

If what Shell are doing is so great - why aren't they living in the communities next the refineries?

Tashiica Miles, Community In-power
Development Association (CIDA)

Patrick Naagbanton - Nigeria

Patrick campaigns for justice for local communities from the impact of oil extraction.

What has improved is the quality of Shell's spin doctors. Nothing else has changed.

Patrick Naagbanton,Niger Delta project for Environment,
Human Rights and Development (NDPEHRD)

Valdenir da Cruz Santos - Brazil

Valdenir is challenging Shell to clean up after 20 years of production and storage of toxic pesticides and oil products in Sao Paulo.

I received news that Shell had buried toxic chemicals in the ground. This worried me greatly.

Valdenir da Cruz Santos, Coletivo Alternativo
Verde (Green Alternative Collective)

Felix Majabague Jr. - the Philippines

Felix represents the people of Pandacan, Manila who want to relocate and remove Shell's oil depot facilities from their area.

Shell asked us to sign a document that would help Shell to keep its oil depot. The [council] leaders who signed received a gift.

Felix Majabague Jr., United Front to Oust Oil Depots

Elena Rashchupkina-Lopukhina - Russia

Elena lives on Sakhalin Island - off Russia's coast - site of a new Shell pipeline development.

The island is 1000km long, the pipeline they want to build is going to be 800km long, it just doesn't make sense.

Elena Rashchupkina-Lopukhina
Sakhalin Environment Watch