Sustainability International (S.I) – a U.S-based NGO that provides environmental solutions to third-world countries – has reportedly initiated a project which utilized Blockchain to address oil cleaning issues in Nigeria.

Specifically, oil drilling is the primary industry which contributes to the growth of the Nigerian economy. However, such extensive oil extractions over decades have left the land of Ogoniland – a Nigerian territory off the Gulf of Guinea Coast – devastated, with many negative impacts to its environment and humans’ living standards.

According to S.I CEO Chinyere Nnadi, the project – dubbed “Clean Up Niger Delta Project” – is a multi-phased initiative, aims to revitalize the region by using Blockchain to improve transparency and accountability. Nnadi added that this is the perfect time for a Blockchain-based project to solve the spilling matter as the complicated political status in the region has resulted in corruption, violence and mistrust among the government, oil companies and the citizens, which greatly stalled any efforts of revitalizing the area.

The pilot stage of the project will be launched in a designated village within 2020. A series of interviews with the villagers will be carried out to collect data and user experience to help them supervise the cleanup process.

“Our pilots will begin with one farm, then expand the cleanups to multiple farms at a time by the third cleanup, using hardware and blockchain [technology] to efficiently execute multiple cleanups,” he said. “Using decentralization, we will enable distributed data collection and secure payments to villages, engineering accountability, economic inclusion and community engagement.”