Zamfara: The return of lead poisoning

Abare village, located more than 100 kilometres from Zamfara State capital Gusau, was one of the communities worst hit by lead poisoning last year. The village lost dozens of children to the pandemic that was also recorded in about six other villages – and blamed for the death of over 400 children. More than a […]

Abare village, located more than 100 kilometres from Zamfara State capital Gusau, was one of the communities worst hit by lead poisoning last year. The village lost dozens of children to the pandemic that was also recorded in about six other villages – and blamed for the death of over 400 children.

More than a year after the incident, the community, through assistance from governments and international agencies, is able to stop children dying of lead poisoning by blocking avenues to fresh infections and concentrating more on treating infected persons.

To halt outbreak of new cases and reverse damage done to the environment, the contaminated topsoil of the entire community was excavated and another one was brought and grafted in a chain of remediation measures. Similarly, contaminated water sources within and around the affected areas were also disinfected.

At the entrance to the village, the international agency Medicins Sans Frontieres (or Doctors without Borders) has set up a clinic and children, most of them escorted by their mothers are receiving treatment. The presence of expatriate medical personnel their Nigerian counterparts administering treatment at the village more than one year after the lead poisoning incident, suggests that even if the danger was tamed, it is not yet over.

The staff would not speak to the press about their work without an approval from their state coordinator, who was said to be away in Lagos State.

Inside the village, notices dot walls of the ward head’s house, warning miners and families not to allow children to come into contact with the mineral lead or their mining wears or implements. One of the signboards written in Hausa read: “Gold miners must not come into the town or their houses with their implements because they contain lead poison.”

Before the devastating incident, gold mining, which involves crushing and drying of the element, was done outside living rooms or inside family compounds in Abare and other villages, a development that gave rise to contamination of the soil, thus exposing children to risk of lead poisoning.

“An acute high level of lead poisoning is fatal in young children,” according to a 2010 report by Medicins Sans Frontieres, titled ‘Lead Poisoning in Zamfara State.’ The report adds: “It can also kill older children and adults, and may result in brain damage, infertility, kidney failure, miscarriages/still births and other major health problems.”

After the resultant deaths from the contamination last year, illegal mining activities were temporarily banned in most parts of the state, while gold and minerals processing were moved out of the villages to isolated areas.

But few metres outside Abare village, mineral processing has returned with full force. About two dozen men, most of them young, were seen processing lead and other minerals. And the greatest danger of it all was the presence of little children, who instead of being in school were out there at the site hawking food and water.

Our guide told Weekly Trust that the place was opened recently. “They are not up to two months here. If they had been long here washing lead in the water, it would have turned red,” he said. But none of the men would agree to speak to our correspondent.

In the village, Malam Lawwali Alyu, told Weekly Trust that no fresh case of lead poisoning has been recorded since the last incidence.

However, experts say chances are that, with the renewed activities of the illegal miners a distance from Abera, it may not take long before the area is re-contaminated and the children begin to fall sick again.

But the most chilling warning was sounded by no other person than the Deputy Coordinator, Rapid Response team on Lead Poisoning in Zamfara, Mr. Nasir Umar-Tsafe, who was quoted by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday as saying that more than 2,000 children that were being enrolled for clinical treatment of lead poisoning were still being exposed to danger or re-contamination.

The deputy coordinator, who reportedly made the remarks while addressing an interactive session on lead poisoning organized by US embassy in Nigeria, disclosed that of the 15 villages needing urgent remediation, only seven have been cleaned so far.

“The immediate thing to be done is remediation because the clinicians will tell you there is no point treating a child who is going back to a contaminated place, getting exposed to lead,” Umar-Tsafe said.

Weekly Trust gathered that villages like Yargalma, Abare, Unguwar Dutse, Salke and Dareta suffered largest casualties from the disaster. It was also learnt however that, in addition to Abare, Dareta and Unguwar Yargalma have been cleaned. But at Bagega village where about 100 deaths were reportedly recorded, remediation is yet to be done.

At the village, one family lost about four children to lead poisoning last year, but still, illegal mining is held as the family’s major source of livelihood. It was learnt that one of the members hit gold mine recently as he extracted N2 million worth of gold ore.

For this family and many others, Weekly Trust found out, mining business has no other substitute, regardless of the dangers involved.

It was also gathered that fresh cases of affliction are being reported in the area, but at a far lower scale than in the past. “As I’m talking to you now, the village is there contaminated, not remediated, even though mining processes have been moved outside the village,” Umar-Tsafe was quoted as saying.

A medical personnel working with a hospital in Bagega revealed that even though cases of miscarriages connected to lead poisoning are recorded among pregnant women in the area, the number has significantly dropped compared to last year when, according to her, 10 cases were recorded every month.

She attributed the decrease to relocation of mineral processing outside the village.

Not far from Abare, at Dareta, the village head said lead poisoning cases have become a thing of the past, even though he disclosed that more than 100 children affected children are receiving treatment at a MSF clinic outside the village.

Malam Muhammadu Bello further told Weekly Trust that members of his community have been engaged in mining activities for close to 20 years.  He described last year’s incidence as a tragedy of monumental proportion. “More than 75 children died here the previous year,” he said.

“Now we have taken several measures, including asking the miners to relocate their processing machines out of the village and not to bring any of their tools or mineral exploits here,” the community leader added.

Some kilometres away, his son Umar Muhammad Uban Daba is the head of a mining camp, where four miners were trapped hundreds of metres into the earth for more than a week. Already, there were fears that they have all died. The son is spearheading the rescue efforts. “This is the first such incident in the 20 years that that mine has been in operation,” Malam Bello said.

Zamfara State Commissioner of Environment, Alhaji Muktari Muhammad Lugga, explained why the clean-up exercise is yet to reach the some of the affected villages. “I’m not sure why but I suspect it will be not be unconnected with unavailability of funds as Bagega may likely require more funds than the combined budget for the six or seven villages treated at that time. Government is fully aware of this unfortunate situation and already several measures have been taken that have completely eradicated mineral processing activities in Bagega,” he said.

The commissioner also pointed out that the new administration in the state had since coming into power, mapped out intervention plan for the community, stressing however that “but unfortunately because of the rainy season, the exercise could not commence until last week when I led my team to the effected community for soil testing and sensitization.” He said heavy equipment have been mobilized to the site and staff training has commenced in earnest.

But the major challenge delaying the exercise according to the commissioner is lack of external interventions. “Another factor has also been limited resources for such a gigantic project and right now except for the activities of the Medicins san Fronteres (MSF) there has been a general lack of support from outside the state,” he said.

Alhaji Muhammad Lugga added that the state government on its own cannot stop the activities of illegal miners operating in the state, as only the Federal Government has the power to issue “grants, explorations and mining licenses.”

“Most times we in the state do not necessarily know who gets issued with what until major calamities occur. Our role is mainly restricted to issuance of consent letters. Even that is being abused. Many a times our effort to parley with license holders operating within our state has been met with stiff resistance,” he said.

He also questioned the rationale of labelling small scale miners as illegal miners, when according to him, there are big operators engaging in the activity even when all they have been issued is prospecting licenses.

Because poverty is widely blamed for the activities of illegal miners in the state, the head of mission of MSF in Nigeria Gautam Chatterjee observed (in 2010) thus: “Medical treatment is only part of the solution that we can provide…the loss of livelihood of these families must also be addressed by the authorities, or else people may continue to risk the health of their families in order to make a living.”

Reinforcing this argument, Alhaji Muhammad said, “Poverty is largely responsible for the activities of most small scale miners. Yet for many the desire to get rich quick has robbed them off the fear of dangers that abound in the tunnels. I can assure you in a few days’ time, chances are you will still find illegal miners have returned to the same site that has just killed 4 people.”

Weekly Trust could not get comments from the coordinator of Medicns Sans Fronteires in Anka, as she was said to have travelled to Lagos when our correspondent visited. But she later called on phone to know about the information being sought for and promised to respond after getting approval from her “bosses” in Amsterdam.