Green

Deadly lead in Nigerian village

One hundred and sixty three. That is the number of lives that were lost before any action was taken to save a village from lead poisoning in Nigeria. What is worse is that children began to die of the toxic lead in January and only now is anything being done about it.

The Blacksmith Institute is an environmental engineering organization and is a global leader in cleaning up polluted sites. They were asked to casually check out the village of Dareta for toxins, which is just a collection of mud huts, when the horrific discovery was made. At the time they were engaged in cleaning up a site in Senegal. That site too was saturated with toxic lead, but only 18 people had died there due to it in the past few years.

The discovery in Dareta was so horrific that the small team that arrived there decided to stay and help clean up the land. The levels of lead found in the soil were 10,000 parts per million. Compare this to the acceptable levels of 400 parts to a million, and the severity of the issue becomes evident. The cause for the high levels has been traced to the men of the village who function as gold miners. The metal ore they bring from the mines is then crushed by the women and children. The lead that is prevalent with gold ore, then finds its way into the soil.

Currently, the institute is training the villagers on how to clear the lead. The men have been issued protective suits to help them clean up the soil. That operation consists solely of removing the topsoil, packing it into plastic bags and burying far away from the village. However, they are hampered by having to use their crude tools such as metal hoes, the impending rainy season and the complete lack of any government support.

What is even more shocking than this is that six more villages like Dareto have been identified. None of them have received any support, government or otherwise.