Travails of Jos chlorine leak survivors

Survivors of the July 25 chlorine leakage at the Jos water treatment plant that claimed nine lives are still in trauma and have to live on long-term medication to save them from the gaseous substance they inhaled during the incident. “I am praying that my unborn baby survives. There are nights I don’t sleep because […]

Survivors of the July 25 chlorine leakage at the Jos water treatment plant that claimed nine lives are still in trauma and have to live on long-term medication to save them from the gaseous substance they inhaled during the incident.
“I am praying that my unborn baby survives. There are nights I don’t sleep because of discomfort, especially when the weather is hot. My little son is also not stable,” a pregnant woman complained tearfully.
Mrs. Kangyan Paul, a resident of Dankam community who is carrying a midterm pregnancy, and her little child of about two years old, as well as her husband, a final year Law student of the University of Jos, live in a tight apartment just at the edge of the wired fence of the water treatment plant of the Plateau State Water Board, along Old Bukuru Road.  
The young couple and their child are some of the lucky survivors of the July 25 toxic gas leak in Jos. All residents who inhaled the gaseous substance have been discharged from hospital after receiving the short term treatment, but they are compelled to cope with returning to the doctors periodically, for a long term treatment which period is still uncertain, doctors at the state-owned specialists’ hospital say.
A total of 153 people, including pregnant women and children, were affected by the Saturday dawn tragedy at the water treatment plant located in the British-American area of Jos, according to latest figures Daily Trust on Saturday obtained from the board. Out of this figure, the board’s spokesman, Nangor Ndam, said nine were confirmed dead, although earlier reports had put the figure at 11.
Gas leakage, not explosion
Reports first said there was an explosion of the cylinders containing a stockpile of chlorine, which raised panic of another bomb blast in the state capital where Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) have gone off repeatedly in recent times.
The disaster, which was reported to have happened at about 3:45 am, occurred barely two weeks after an IED explosion was averted in a church, and after a twin blast ripped through an Islamic school during the recently concluded Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.
“There was a leakage from the nuzzle that slipped off the mouth of the cylinder. The cylinder was kept lying flat on the ground, so the nuzzle removed, causing the leakage. If it was kept upright, that leakage wouldn’t have happened,” the plant’s image maker explained. “So, it cannot be an explosion; there was no cylinder burst, no explosion.”
He also said subsequent reports that the leakage was caused by expiration of the cylinder were not true, and explained that: “The cylinder is old, but it hasn’t expired.” He said the management of the board has invited the contractor who supplied the cylinders to make their supply papers available to confirm that the cylinders at the plant are still useful.
The disaster was happening for the second time since December 2013 when a gas cylinder just relocated from the board’s headquarters because of malfunction, fell down during installation, causing the gas to leak. “It was a mild one, and nobody died,” Ndam said.
Residents evacuate, but return
Residents living or doing business near the area of the plant had evacuated after the tragedy hospitalised. Daily Trust on Saturday observed during the first two days after the incident the police anti-bomb squad cordoned off the perimeters of the area, and helped residents to evacuate.
The water treatment plant is tucked in-between residential houses, including the quarters of the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS), and some private estates in the densely populated Dankam suburb. All roads adjoining the plant like Murtala Mohammed Way, Old Bukuru By-Pass, and Yakubu Gowon Way, were barricaded against traffic to avert contact with the toxic gas by motorists and other road users.
Witnesses said residents of the area left in droves, to avoid contact with the gaseous substance which many inhaled to death.
“People around the area were running to other parts of Jos. We saw many people leaving in haste,” said one witness. “More people from even far off areas are leaving with their families.”
 Meanwhile, the Plateau State government issued a statement, saying the tragedy was controlled by daybreak. Emmanuel Nanle, media aide to Governor Simon Lalong, had said the leakage was controlled, and treatment and supply of water resumed immediately.
 Residents, who had evacuated, are returning gradually, it was observed earlier in the week. Most NIS personnel have also returned to their quarters just as businesses near the plant have all reopened. Mrs. Paul and her family are some of the residents who have long returned to the troubled area.
“We have nowhere to go to. What do we do, sleep in the streets? We had to return because there was no provision made for us to remain outside of our home,” the pregnant woman told Daily Trust on Saturday in front of her humble apartment. She added that the family returned a week after the incident in the hope that the gas leakage would have long been controlled.
“We are hoping the government will make provisions for our relocation if they feel this place is not safe for us to return, but we have heard from no one in official quarters,” she said.
Mrs. Paul said she was lucky to survive the gas leakage with her family in an area where neighbours died in a large number, but expressed fear that her unborn baby may have been affected.
A personnel of NIS who declined to give her name, said she has been having respiratory problems since then, and is making contact to get specialised treatment abroad.
“An uncle is helping me with contacts to get overseas treatment,” she narrated.
Long term treatment necessary
The Chief Medical Director at the Specialists’ Hospital explained that the patients have been placed on long medical checks and treatment.
“They are required to visit periodically for out-patients consultation so our doctors can have absolute follow up on them,” Dr. Golwa Filimon told Daily Trust on Saturday.
“When chlorine is taken in excess, it destroys the mucus membrane, especially of the respiratory tract. It can affect normal daily breathing exercises, and feeding too. It means the victim can become incapacitated in breathing exercise because respiration will be altered. There will be respiratory distress,” he said. “Patients can actually die, if it is not properly checked and treated.”
Meanwhile, a relative of the deceased James Bigila has condemned the handling of the facility, and the tragedy by relevant authorities, saying there has been negligence.
Bigila, who lost his immediate elder sister in the incident, said he was more heartbroken when he watched the permanent secretary of the state ministry of water resources, Mr. Hanatu Dantong on the television, passing the blame to residents and property developers for staying close to the water treatment plant against prior warning.
“But the same official failed to see the problem with the state ministry of lands and survey that surveyed the area and mapped out plots and sold allocation to buyers. The state has been taking taxes from this area, including property charges. The same permanent secretary failed to see the problem with her water treatment plant using gas or liquid chlorine which is toxic and very harmful, instead of powered chlorine in this era,” Bigila, a blogger said.
“It shows incompetence and negligence on the part of the entire government, and insensitivity particularly on the part of the permanent secretary who would pass blame on deceased persons without showing remorse with a word of sympathy to relatives of the deceased,” he added.
But Mrs. Dantong denied passing the blame, saying she did not only lead a delegation to visit and sympathise with the families in their hometowns, but was also part of a larger government process to identify all victims in the hospitals to take up their bills.
Stockpile of gas still leaking
The board has since resumed treatment of water at the plant, although now using powdered chlorine, but an investigation by a team of specialists last week showed that the facility is still keeping the stockpile of the harmful substances in the same old cylinders.
Prof. Abdulsalami Nasidi, Project Manager of Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), who led a team of doctors from the Nigeria Field Epidemiology and Laboratory Training Programme, had said during the inspection at the plant that the source of the poison was yet to be addressed, insisting that it needed to be moved out immediately and buried to stave off a reoccurrence of the tragedy.
“We discovered that the source of the poison is still not destroyed. It is still hanging. We have evidence there are still leakages,” said Nasidi, who led a team of doctors on an inspection of the plant.
“We cannot guarantee that it cannot happen again. We have to quickly start massive health education because if it happens again, nobody will forgive us,” he cautioned.