Nigeria: 'Safer Mining Will Check Re-Occurrence of Lead Poisoning

With the announcement that 100 per cent remediation exercise had been completed in Bagega, Anka local government area, Zamfara State, following the 2010 Zamfara lead poisoning, attention now on the Ministry of Mines and Steel Development to ensure that safer mining is in place to avoid a reoccurrence, Ruth Tene Natsa and Evelyn Okoruwa report.

The Director, Artisanal and Small Scale Mining (ASM), Ministry of Mines and Steel Development, Obiorah Azubuike, has again reiterated that the safer mining programme for Zamfara State was on course.

Speaking in an exclusive interview with LEADERSHIP recently, he maintained that "the project was on course following a successful process of tendering, bidding and offer of contracts for the safer mining programme."

Azubuike revealed that the programme was implemented with the N158.3 million intervention fund which the federal government released to the ministry on safer mining programme in Zamfara State, adding that "government's intervention in the Zamfara lead poison in 2010 has made remarkable achievements particularly in the areas of environmental remediation, sensitisation on safer mining practice and treatment of the affected victims."

Safer mining, according to him, includes sensitisation on safer mining; procurement and installation of safer mining equipment; setting up of three mineral processing centers in the state; and provision of extension services to ASM cooperatives in the state, while revealing that one mining post at Bagega, Anka local government area, Zamfara State, had been completed while the one at Maru was still under construction.

Meanwhile, the Minister of Environment, Hajia Hadiza Mailafia, has confirmed that the N400 million environmental remediation exercise headed by her ministry was 100 per cent complete. She stated this while briefing journalists in Abuja on environmental remediation of lead contaminated sites in Bagega. Mailafia recalled that the president had released over N800 million in January to the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Mines and Steel Development, which is in charge of safer mining techniques, to take care of the medical aspect while the Ministry of Environment handles environmental remediation.

She emphasised the need for more sensitisation to enlighten people on the negative effect of lead poisoning, listing the effects to include the tendency for children to have cognitive impairment and being likely to exhibit behaviors that are not in tandem with societal norms and values.

Confirming the minister's position on remediation, the Head, Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders), Michelle Chouinard and the Director, Field Operations, TerraGraphics International Foundation, Simba Tirima, also confirmed that the remediation exercise at Bagega had been completed. The director made the assertion while on a visit to the Ministry of Mines and Steel Development recently where they called for further strategies and alliances to prevent future occurrences of lead poisoning in Zamfara and in any other state of the country.

TerraGraphics International Foundation is a United States of America-based company that partnered with the Federal Ministry of Environment to handle the remediation programme at Bagega while Medecins Sans Frontieres is involved in the treatment of the victims of the lead poison.

Tirima said he and Chouinard were impressed by what the Ministry of Mines and Steel Development was doing with the safer mining programme and reiterated their desire for continuous collaboration with the ministry and other stakeholders involved in the various intervention programmes.

Meanwhile, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Mines and Steel Development, Mr Linus Awute, who commended the team for their various roles in stopping incidents of death occasioned by the lead poison, said, "We are scaling up our programme of sensitisation on safer mining to prevent future occurrences of lead poisoning in Zamfara State and in other states of the country."

Accordingly, we have lined up some programmes for effective implementation of our work plan on a sustainable basis. The ministry's 2013 budget has a funding window for use in widening the scope of our mining extension services and inspectorate activities which are on-going," he said.

Mr Awute also disclosed that the ministry had procured safety kits and gadgets for safer mining for distribution to the artisanal and small scale miners at the critical flash points in Zamfara State where field demonstrations on best mining practices are being carried out by field officers of the ministry.

"The wet milling and Igoli machines for the safer mining programme ordered from South Africa would arrive the country soonest. On arrival the safer alternative equipment for processing of gold ores would be installed at the three mineral processing centers in Bagega, Kwali and Maru," he further informed.

According to the permanent secretary, three outposts would be constructed at Bagega, Kwali and Maru in Zamfara State. He stated that the outpost at Bagega had already been completed with a mineral buying centre and work was in progress on the completion of the other two outposts.

Reiterating the position of the ministry, Awute said, "The Ministry of Mines and Steel Development has plans in its future budgets to extend the safer mining programme to other states of the federation to build mineral processing centres among other things. All these are the painstaking efforts of government towards ensuring that avoidable environmental and health disasters are prevented in Nigeria's mining industry."