The Cost of Cheap Energy: Dangote’s Industrial Push for Coal Leaves Benue’s Rivers Poisoned. Now, Communities are in Health Peril
Eighteen Indigenous communities including Otukpo, the traditional home of the Idoma ethnic group in Benue State are in danger as a result of a coal mining operation by Dangote Coal Mines Ltd, a subsidiary of Dangote Group.
SouthernHerald’s THEOPHILUS ADEDOKUN reveals how deadly contaminants such as Lead, Arsenic, Mercury and Cadmium from Dangote Coal Mine sites seep into the major water source for communities in Benue South Senatorial district. Experts say these poisonous chemicals possess epidemiological time bombs like cancer and kidney diseases for the residents. This report also documents the company’s disregard for environmental global practices and mining regulations.
DEATH flashes before Gabriel Ocheke in March last year. His life almost left his body if not for the intervention of a quick medical intervention that saved the situation. It was a traumatic experience that still haunts him till date.
The forty-year-old native of Aokete, Ekenobi in Eke ward, Okpokwu LGA of Benue State, like other members of his community, had relied on River Okpokwu for daily use until it became contaminated in 2020.
Gabriel Ocheke displays the scar left by a surgical operation on his stomach. His ailment was linked to the intake of water from the contaminated River Okpokwu. Photo credit: Adedokun Theophilus/SouthernHerald[/caption]
Despite the contamination, Gabriel and his family continued to drink from the river, utilising the water for cooking and bathing because there was no better alternative.
Families that could afford sachet water (pure water) have completely abandoned the river water, even though it is a more expensive option. The rest have to contend with living with multiple plagues such as body rashes and other infections. Later on, Gabriel began to experience discomfort all over his body.
This aggravated to dizziness until he became critically ill and was diagnosed for surgical treatment.
“My stomach began to swell up and I felt pains all over my body and a serious headache,” he told SouthernHerald.
The medical practitioner diagnosed him with bowel perforation caused by contaminated water. Research confirmsthat abdominal bloating and pains are linked to the consumption of toxic and heavy metals, which include lead,mercury, and arsenic.
SouthernHerald confirmed from experts that coal mining activities by companies such as Dangote Coal Mines, a subsidiary of Dangote Group could be responsible for polluting freshwater bodies and threatening the environment in Benue State.
Yet, regulatory agencies such as the Ministry of Solid Minerals Development, the Mines Cadastral Office, theNational Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency (NESREA) and the Benue State Ministry of Mineral Resources shy away from holding the company accountable for environmental pollution.
The quantities of Mercury in the Drinking Water of Benue Indigenous communities are much higher than the permitted limit by the National Industrial Standard. Photo credit: Adedokun Theophilus/SouthernHerald[/caption]
The activity of Dangote Coal Mines is against Section 123 of the Nigerian Minerals and Mining Act (NMMA) 2007, which forbids the contamination of freshwater bodies and waterways. The company’s operation also breaches Section 111, which states that environmental pollution must be prevented.
Tanimola Akande, the erstwhile National Chairman of the Association of Public Health Physicians of Nigeria and Professor of Public Health at the University of Ilorin told SouthernHerald, that humans and aquatic life can be at grave risk from coal mine discharge. The discharge and toxic metals can lead to dysfunction of the nervous system, neurological damage, cancer and the destruction of the body organs, he said.
Akande cautioned persons residing within the proximity of contaminated water to avoid drinking such contaminated water.
Several studies confirm that pollutants, contaminants, andchemicals that escape from coal mines can lead to severe skin diseases and cancer. Critical health problems like skin and bladder cancers, neurological illness, an increase in tumours, kidney problems, hypertension, liver cirrhosis and skin irritation are said to be linked to some hazardous chemicals that are being discharged into the environment during coal exploration, washing, and other processes in mining areas. However, other non-coal-mining-related pollutants canupsurge the danger of chronic and acute disorders when problems are experienced after prolonged exposure.
“We are helpless, but we cannot do anything. We have cases of typhoid, malaria and respiratory diseases every time,” said Ejembi Enokela, a medical clinical student at the University of Abuja Teaching Hospital and native of Ekenobi, attributing a high incidence of illness to the polluted water.
Apart from Ekenobi village, SouthernHerald found that Otukpo and seventeen other villages downstream of the Dangote mining sites are endangered by the pollution that has been consistent for four years. The water crises have fueledmedical emergencies for many households.