FIJ
When Philip Evan first suffered chest pains, he thought it was a one-off symptom that would disappear.
During the period, many of his fellow workers who sprayed chemicals on crops grown at the Dangote Sugar Refinery, had also complained of having breathing problems. Deeming the pain a temporary discomfort, Evan brushed it off.
“It’s just a part of the job,” he thought.
He, however, continued to experience the pain for months, then years.
When he eventually decided to visit a hospital to get himself checked, X-ray results showed he had lesions on his lungs.
Doctors would later inform him that the lesions were caused by the the herbicides and pesticides he had inhaled while spraying the sugarcane plantation owned by Dangote Sugar Refinery (DSR).
He was also informed that the herbicides and pesticides he inhaled had also began damaging his liver.
Evan said he was subsequently advised to quit his job or his health would continue to degenerate. With only a few options available, however, Evan stayed on for two more years.
“The pain is … right in the middle of my chest,” Evan told these reporters through a translator in a 2022 interview in Gyawana, his home village that is just a few kilometres from the refinery.
He blamed “the chemicals” during the interview.
Last year, Evan died.
Though Evan’s death certificate was later set on fire, as it is customary to burn the property of the dead in some areas in northeast Nigeria, his daughter claimed doctors again “warned him of the problems with his lungs and liver months before he passed away”.
Evan was one of thousands of casual labourers who worked and still work on DSR’s estate, which stretches across 32,000 hectares of Adamawa State.
Owned by Aliko Dangote, Africa’s richest man, locals claim that the chemicals the refinery uses pollute their water, kill their crops, and cause deadly harm to their health.
Tests carried out on water sources close to the sugarcane fields showed they were laden with dangerous heavy metals associated with using pesticides and herbicides.
Spraying the fields is also a “backbreaking task”.
Workers spend 12-hour shifts trudging up and down rows of sugarcane with tanks of chemicals strapped to their backs, with each weighing the same as two car tyres.
Five sprayers claim that the face masks and coats that DSR provides for them only last a few uses, leaving them dizzy from the fumes, and vulnerable to chemical burns.
One of the chemicals the sprayers use is a herbicide developed specifically for DSR called Azine Gold 5000.
Its active ingredient, Atrazine, was banned by the European Union (EU) after studies revealed it causes cancer and birth defects.
It is, however, still legal to use Azine Gold 5000 in Nigeria.
Several sprayers said they also used the herbicide 2,4-D.
Studies show that 2,4-D causes dizziness, nausea, and diarrhoea. It also damages the kidneys and liver.
The chemical has since been banned in Italy, Holland, Norway and Mozambique.
“These chemicals are very harmful, especially if you are not using a nose mask or if it comes into contact with the body,” said Michael Joel, the head of the sprayers.
“When you inhale it … sometimes it ruins your breathing.”
A health worker at DSR, who asked not be named, claimed many of the sprayers he had treated complained of chest pains and some had been diagnosed of asthma by the local hospital.
Chest pain and infections, parasites and painful rashes are among a raft of health issues reported by the people who live and work near the refinery.
Health workers say the health issues are caused by the chemicals sprayed on the sugarcane fields, which in turn contaminate nearby streams and pools, killing off aquatic life and people’s crops.
To test the inhabitants’ and sprayers’ claims, reporters took multiple samples from the canals that channel DSR’s wastewater into the surrounding community and the water sources people drink, use in bathing and fish from.
Laboratory analysis later showed that all the water samples were laden with illegally high quantities of toxic heavy metals. These toxic heavy metals present in the water were caused by the consistent use of pesticides and herbicides in the nearby sugarcane fields.
No other factories can be linked to the toxic heavy metals in the area.
“As these substances are applied to crops, they can accumulate in the soil, leach into groundwater and eventually make their way into the food chain, posing serious risks to human health and ecosystems,” said Isaac Akoit, the founder of The Netherlands-based water hygiene consultancy AVIRA Consults.
DSR did not respond to repeated requests for comments on the matter for several months.
TAINTED WATER
Leo Oliver watched a greyish stream flow past the edge of his small plot of land.
The stream, a liquid waste from DSR’s refinery, is the main source of irrigation for the farms he and his neighbours grow the rice and other crops they feed their families on.
Oliver, who used to work as a sprayer for DSR, was forced to quit after he found out the activity had led to serious health challenges for him. One of the health conditions he currently suffers from is a difficulty in breathing.
Now, he says the same chemicals he once sprayed on the refinery’s sugarcane are killing his crops.
“Once the water from their farm enters here, it will damage your crop completely,” said Oliver, who also lives in Gyawana Village.
“We always record losses because of this damage.”
DSR’s wastewater is flushed out of the refinery via a series of canals that carry the toxic fluids through the surrounding fields and into streams and pools used by locals.
The barriers around the canals have eroded in recent years, leaving the area to be prone to flooding during the long rainy season.
Oliver claimed that the effluent from the canal running past his field swept through his land and the surrounding plots in 2023, wiping out his and his neighbours’ crops.
Amos Oseni, a community leader and farmer from the same Gyawana, said DSR is well aware of the problems.
The refinery has, however, done nothing to remedy the situation.
“The community has been complaining and pleading for them to come to their aid and rectify these problems,” Oseni said.
Chemicals sprayed in DSR’s plantations can enter the water system in several ways, according to experts.
Herbicides and pesticides are washed off the sugarcane fields during irrigation, or when the stalks are cleaned before they are crushed to make sugar.
The crushing process requires vast amounts of water — between 1,500 and 2,000 litres for every tonne of cane, creating some 1,000 litres of wastewater.
Company reports show the refinery used 4.16 million cubic metres of water in 2022, almost double the previous year.
The refinery has pledged to increase its capacity to 250,000 tonnes per annum, which could release an estimated extra 200 billion litres of effluent.
Working with experts, these reporters took samples from DSR’s irrigation and wastewater system, as well as various water sources used by villagers from Gyawana, then sent them to the University of Lagos’ public consultancy laboratory for testing.
The analysis would reveal that the wastewater from a canal that flushes DSR’s effluent into the surrounding fields was so acidic and contaminated with chemicals that it would “have a negative effect on the environment [and] aqua lives, causing stunted growth of plants and low farm produce”.
Other tests found high concentrations of heavy metals, which studies show, could have been occasioned by the use of herbicides and pesticides.
One sample taken from inside the refinery’s wastewater tank in August 2022, contained more than double the amount of manganese permitted by Nigeria’s environmental regulation agency, NESREA.
The metal is known to cause neurological problems, especially in children.
The amount of nickel in the wastewater, a heavy metal that can cause cancer, was 72% above legal limits.
Water taken from a stream that people from Gyawana Village fish from, bathe with and also drink from, showed illegally high concentrations of the two metals.
Both samples, which the University of Lagos Consult laboratory described as “unsatisfactory” quality, contained more manganese and nickel than the World Health Organisation deems safe to drink.
Tests on samples taken during the rainy season, in May 2023, showed even more worrying results. The laboratory found the refinery’s wastewater, the water it uses to irrigate its sugarcane and a pool where villagers fish from were all contaminated with lead.
The highly toxic metal is listed as one of the WHO’s ten chemicals of major public health concern.
“The values were found to be above the WHO statutory limits,” the laboratory analysis stated, noting that exposure to even small doses of lead can damage children’s nervous systems, cause a hearing disability and also lead to learning difficulties.
A director at Médecins Sans Frontières, who reviewed the laboratory results, said the medical organisation may intervene to help people living near DSR.
“Anytime I hear of any lead level, I am concerned,” he said, speaking anonymously to avoid compromising his work.
HEALTH CONCERNS
In Gyawana and Numan, another town near the DSR, people’s health challenges are very clear to see.
From elderly folks on their porches to children playing in the street, many displayed itchy white rashes spread all over their skins. Some were red and raw, like open boils.
“The canal is close to the community,” said Victor Solomon, a health worker in Gyawana.
“Most of our children and other people that are coming from the farm, they will just go to bathe there, others will drink that water. That is what is causing all those things.”
“Many people become infected with parasites like Bilharzia or Schistosomiasis, tiny worms that burrow through the skin and lay eggs in their organs,” said Taturi Amos, a health worker who works at the Gyawana Primary Healthcare Centre.
“Stagnant pools of wastewater from the refinery also provide perfect breeding grounds for mosquitos, so malaria is widespread.
“This is because the wastewater comes directly from DSR to Gyawana. Our people drink the water, wash and bathe with it. People come to our clinic with “toilet infection and chest infection because of the chemicals” … because there is [a] problem in the water.”
Apart from the heavy presence of heavy metals, the laboratory tests also showed that the waste water contained higher concentrations of ammonia nitrogen and sulphides than allowed by NESREA.
These components are used in fertilizers, which the refinery feeds its sugarcane to help it grow.
When the components enter the streams and rivers, they can spur the growth of algae that sucks the oxygen out of the water, killing off aquatic life and creating the perfect conditions for bacteria and parasites to thrive.
The laboratory used two tests to determine how much oxygen was in DSR’s effluent: both showed levels that were 50% lower than allowed by the Nigerian law.
Despite the dangers of drinking contaminated water, villagers say they have few alternatives. Water from the boreholes and wells in the area is also polluted, often stained and contains dangerously high levels of calcium.
