-LRB- CNN -RRB- -- Nigeria 's state oil company rejected criticism from a leading human rights group Wednesday , calling an Amnesty International report `` inaccurate . '' File image of Shell 's oil and gas terminal on Bonny Island in southern Nigeria 's Niger Delta . `` We have issues with the report , '' said Levi Ajuonoma , a spokesman for Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation . Amnesty said Tuesday that pollution and environmental impacts from the oil industry in the Niger Delta are creating a `` human rights tragedy '' in which local people suffer poor health and loss of livelihood . Governments and oil companies are failing to be accountable for the problems , Amnesty said in its report , called `` Petroleum , Pollution and Poverty in the Niger Delta . '' But the state oil company said it was local communities who cause much of the environmental damage by vandalizing pipelines for monetary gain . `` We take environmental damage very seriously , '' Ajuonoma said . `` Pipeline damage is a major cause of pollution , '' he argued , blaming `` communities who ... vandalize pipelines and make claims on the oil company operating in the area . '' Amnesty leveled a wide range of charges in its report . `` People living in the Niger Delta have to drink , cook with and wash in polluted water , '' said Audrey Gaughran , who co-authored the report . `` They eat fish contaminated with oil and other toxins -- if they are lucky enough to be able to still find fish . The land they farm on is being destroyed . `` After oil spills , the air they breathe smells of oil , gas and other pollutants . People complain of breathing problems and skin lesions , and yet neither the government nor the oil companies monitor the human impacts of oil pollution . '' The report looks at oil spills , gas flaring , waste dumping and other environmental impacts from the oil industry . The majority of the evidence in the report relates to Shell , the main oil company operating in the region . `` Despite its public claims to be a socially and environmentally responsible corporation , Shell continues to directly harm human rights through its failure to adequately prevent and mitigate pollution and environmental damage in the Niger Delta , '' Gaughran said . A Shell spokesman said the company shares Amnesty 's concern for the people in the Niger Delta but disputes the group 's assessment of its corporate accountability . `` We feel that the root causes of the Niger Delta 's humanitarian issues are poverty , corruption , crime , militancy , and violence . This report does not acknowledge these issues to any substantive degree , but concentrates on oil and gas issues in isolation , and as such , its value is limited , '' said a spokesman at the company 's headquarters in The Hague , Netherlands , who asked not to be identified per company policy . `` This report brings no new insights or analysis to help oil companies such as SPDC improve managing the issues of the Niger Delta , '' the Shell spokesman said . `` Instead , in parts it draws wide-ranging and superficial conclusions from a number of these deeply complex issues , offering little underlying analysis to support those conclusions . '' SPDC is the Shell Petroleum Development Company , the national oil and gas company in Nigeria . Shell owns a 30-percent stake in the company while the Nigerian government owns 55 percent . The Niger Delta is a region in Nigeria consisting of nine oil-producing states . It has a land area of about 46,500 square miles -LRB- 75,000 square km -RRB- -- about the same size as the Czech Republic or the U.S. state of Pennsylvania , according to the United Nations Development Program -LRB- UNDP -RRB- . An area of rich biological diversity , the region contains the world 's third-largest wetland with the most extensive freshwater swamp forest , according to the UNDP . More than half the area contains creeks and small islands , while the rest is rainforest , the UNDP says . At the same time , the Niger Delta produces the oil wealth that accounts for the bulk of Nigeria 's foreign earnings , the UNDP says . Amnesty says the majority of people living in the Niger Delta depend on the natural environment for their food and livelihood , particularly through agriculture and fisheries . Shell said it is not responsible for some 80 percent of the pollution in the oil-rich area , because that pollution is the result of attacks and sabotage of Shell operations in the Niger Delta . `` Over the past four weeks alone we had eight attacks , '' he said . `` These attacks had a substantial impact on the environment , and assets , and most importantly for the people that live and work there . '' About 85 percent of the oil spills from Shell operations are the result of attacks and sabotage , he said . Nigeria 's main militant group , the Movement for Emancipation of the Niger Delta , or MEND , has claimed responsibility for numerous attacks on the region 's oil infrastructure in recent months . MEND said Sunday it had attacked an offshore facility and that it was engulfed in flames . Last week , the group said it had destroyed a pipeline owned and operated by the Italian gas company Agip . Also last week , MEND claimed to have destroyed Shell 's main trunk line in Bayelsa state and a Chevron oil station in the region . MEND demands that more of Nigeria 's oil wealth be invested in the Niger Delta instead of enriching those whom the militants consider to be corrupt politicians . Last year , a series of MEND attacks forced Nigeria to cut its oil exports by as much as 40 percent . Amnesty 's report acknowledged that armed groups and communities have worsened the pollution problem by vandalizing oil infrastructure or stealing oil , but it said the scale of the problem is not clear . Shell said plans are under way to deal with the problem of gas flaring , which happens when crude oil is brought to the surface along with the large volumes of gas that have been trapped with it . The gas used to be burned off safely in a process called flaring , but that process is now considered a waste of resources and revenue for the government , Shell says . A $ 3 billion program to reduce the gas flares has already been able to cut them by 30 percent , the company said . The Amnesty report also pointed the finger at governments and said they have failed to be held accountable for the situation of the people . The Niger Delta covers 185 different local government areas , according to the United Nations Development Program . `` The government must address the human impact of oil industry pollution , '' said Gaughran , of Amnesty . `` They have a duty to protect their citizens from human rights abuse or harm by businesses and they are failing in that duty . '' Shell supports `` collaborative solutions '' between communities , governments , corporations and non-profit groups as the only way to address the problems listed in the Amnesty report , the spokesman said . `` The SPDC definitely shares Amnesty International 's concern that the people in the Niger Delta have n't benefited from the extraction of the oil and gas as they should , '' the spokesman said , `` but this has been the opinion of the SPDC for a number of years . '' CNN 's Christian Purefoy contributed to this report .