Grace Audi, 37, lives with her partner and two-year-old in Ogale, where there have been at least 40 oil spills from Shell’s infrastructure, according to Leigh Day, the UK-law firm representing the communities in this case.
Her family and neighbours only have access to a contaminated borehole, forcing them to buy clean water to use for drinking, cooking, washing and, once a day, flushing, at a cost of 4,500 Nigerian naira ($3, £2.40) – in an area where the average daily wage is less than $8.
It is a familiar story to many in Ogoniland.
Paulina Agbekpekpe told the BBC that lush greenery once surrounded thriving mangroves of her community in Bodo – which is not one of those going to court on Thursday. She said the rivers and ponds used to brim with all kinds of animals and fish, particularly periwinkle.
“The place was greener, not only mangroves, but all by the shoreline – there were pawpaw trees, palm trees and more. But during the spills, the destruction has polluted everywhere,” the 50-year-old mother of six said.
Her family had for generations survived on fishing, until a devastating spill 10 years ago.
“Most of the children – from the drinking water – have got diseases. Many have died. I’ve lost eight kids. My husband is sick.
“Because our livelihoods have been taken away, people in Bodo are hungry and suffering.”
In 2011, the UN’s Environment Programme (UNEP) published a major study into the impact of pollution on the oil-rich area.
It found members of one community in Ogoniland were drinking water contaminated with a known carcinogen at levels more than 900 times above the World Health Organization (WHO) guideline. The same chemical, benzene, was detected in all their air samples.
It also found that sites that Shell’s Nigerian subsidiary, the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC), claimed to have remediated, were still polluted and the techniques they used did not reach regulatory requirements.
The report concluded that a comprehensive clean-up of the area would take 25-30 years – and it led to the formation of the Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project (Hyprep).
This was initially established by the Nigerian government in 2012, but no clean-up was started – until it was relaunched by a new government in December 2016.
Hyprep was part-funded by oil companies including the state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) and Shell, which gave $350m.
