West Africa: The World Bank and the West Africa Gas Pipeline Project

The $600 million West African Gas Pipeline project (WAGP) aims to deliver gas from Nigeria via a 680 kilometre pipeline to a terminal point in Takoradi, Ghana. This pipeline cuts across and impacts communities in the states of Ogun and Lagos in southwestern Nigeria. Local communities and civil society groups in Nigeria, Ghana, Togo and Benin had from the conceptual stages of this project in 2000 at an information consultative workshop hosted by Environmental Rights Action argued that this project would further impoverish them, intensify the degradation of the local environment and divert attention and resources from the very vital issue of gas flare reduction.