Atong Amos Agook – the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Triple-A Services and Petroleum Limited — has decried the environmental pollution on some women due to oil production.

The recipient of an award in the Oil and Gas Category by Forty Under Forty Africa Award 2023, in South Africa last month called on oil companies to ensure the operations do not impact people and animals.

“We have a lot of women who give birth to children with birth defects, and other health implications. All oil companies need to look up to the health of women who live around those areas, they are our sisters and mothers. So, there is a need to plan on how to protect women,” said Atong.

“I would urge all companies that are operating in the oil fields to protect our environment. Health and development should be a priority for the oil companies,

“The government should come up with a plan of how to manage environmental pollution. They also need to find a way to store the chemicals away from people, even animals as well.”

A scientific study conducted by a German Human Rights and Relief Organization noted that more than 180,000 people in the oil-producing areas were at risk of drinking water contaminated by crude oil.

Environmentalists say the oil industry in South Sudan has left a landscape pocked with hundreds of open waste pits, the water, and soil contaminated with toxic chemicals and heavy metals including mercury, manganese, and arsenic.