Doctors Without Borders has handed over its lead poisoning project to the government of Zamfara State, northwest Nigeria, after 11 years of preventive and medical operations in the area.
According to the humanitarian organisation, also known as Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), children are no longer dying of lead poisoning in the state.
An estimated 400 children died of lead poisoning prior to the start of MSF’s intervention in June 2010. They died within just six months in several villages after exposure to an unusually high concentration of lead as a result of unsafe artisanal mining activities.
At least 43 villages in the state confirmed cases of lead poisoning, according to a survey conducted by the U.S. Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.
‘Almost 12 years after our teams first started intervening in the area, no more children are dying of lead poisoning in Zamfara’, an MSF statement read.
‘As a result, we handed over the programme to key ministries of the Zamfara State government, the Anka Emirate Council and the local community at the beginning of February 2022’.
In partnership with the community, eight villages in Anka and Bukkuyum local government areas were remediated, by removing contaminated soils and mineral processing waste from residential areas, wells and ponds, according to MSF.
MSF also said that miners were provided with information and tools to reduce exposure during mining and processing activities, and to minimise off-site contamination.
The organisation said that between May 2010 and December 2021, they screened 8,480 children under five for lead poisoning, and more than 80 percent of the children were enrolled in a medical lead programme, including 3,549 children who received lengthy chelation therapy.
‘The results of the pilot projects have been encouraging, and the state governments say they are committed to scaling up safer mining practices in Zamfara and Niger states’, the statement added.
According to MSF, the key factor for the successful reduction of exposure to lead poisoning was the involvement of international organisations with expertise in environmental health, safer mining and occupational health that complimented their medical response.
‘We will continue to ensure that the environment remains clean so that children will not get poisoned again’, the MSF statement quoted the General Director of the Zamfara State Environmental Sanitation Agency (ZESA), Shehu Anka, as saying.
To prevent children from dying from lead poisoning again, MSF urged all development partners to remain committed to promoting and maintaining safe mining practices.
Source: MSF
Photo source: MSF
