A rural mining community in Rafi council area of Niger State, Shikira, has sparked concern among environment watchers on the delay in cleaning up of the environment, one year after lead contamination.
An environmental watch group, Connected Development, in a statement signed by the chief executive, Hamzat Lawal, has said that at least 28 children under five years died in an outbreak of lead poisoning last year May in Shikira, and more than 300 are living with high levels of lead contamination in their blood and in need of urgent medical attention.
A survey carried out last year found eight in 10 children in two communities, Ungwar Magiro and Ungwar Kawo, contaminated with more than 45 microgrammes of lead per decilitre of blood, a threshold at which acute treatment is required.
Lawal noted that the Minister of Environment, Amina Mohammed, visited the impacted site and declared it a national disaster, but cleanup of the communities is yet to start, a year after the outbreak and deaths, and a N300 million cleanup funding built into the 2016 budget.
“The truth is that time is running out as the rainy season has just began and would disrupt the exercise and spread to other neighbouring communities if remediation does not commence immediately,” he said.
“It is exciting that Doctors Without Borders, a specialised body that renders humanitarian services, has indicated interest to provide free health services but on the condition that the environment must first be cleared of any contaminant,” the statement said.
While noting that early June, the Senate passed a resolution to compel urgent start of the cleanup, Hamzat said the concern remains until funds are released for cleanup work to begin.
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