Working dangerously
Vivien Njemanze, a
committee clerk, had just finished conducting her boss, the chairperson
of the Senate Committee on Environment,
Grace Benet, round
quarry sites in Mpape, at the outskirt of Abuja when she noticed that a
bulldozer had deliberately crossed the only road, and all cars, bikes
and pedestrians have stopped moving.
People rushed out of buildings; everybody stood still, gazing expectantly at a mountain down the road.
Boom! A loud
explosion rattled off the mountain; the earth trembled, and a thick
cloud of dust covered the town, but nobody was hurt. Crush Rock
industries Ltd had just blasted a segment of the mount down the road.
Incidentally, the
Senate Committee on Environment and the National Environmental Standard
and Regulation Enforcement Agency (NESREA) had gone there to enforce
environmental regulation laws on the five stone quarry companies
operating in the suburb. The enforcement team was led by Ms Benet (PDP
Adamawa state), and comprised senators and the director general of the
environmental regulatory agency, Ngeri Benebo.
The previous week,
a similar blast produced disturbing waves which shock was felt by
buildings in the high profile Maitama district, less than 10 km away.
Apparently, the one
million people living in the community are familiar with such blasts
and with dust going down their lungs, but the enforcement team seemed
worried that the miners were not complying with the regulations guiding
their business and that their unlimited blasting was beginning to
affect the immediate environment and the adjourning Maitama district
negatively.
The enforcement
team were also checking if the various mining companies had any plan to
remedy the environment after their blasts and excavations.
Non-compliant miners
The five stone
mining companies operating in the suburb have mostly been blasting and
crushing rocks in Mpape for over 30 years but none of them have an
environmental impact assessment certificate or a plan on how to repair
the environment after mining. Neither did any of the mining companies
have a corporate social responsibility project in the community.
The worst offender
was Julius Berger Plc. They are the longest stone blasting company in
the area but had neither an Environmental Impact Assessment certificate
nor an Environmental Management Plan. Their site also had a lake
developing from their previous mining pit, “untreated and breeding
mosquitoes.” “Can Julius Berger do this in Germany?” Mrs Bent asked the
site manager. “This is totally unacceptable in Nigeria.”
The senate
committee chairman therefore gave them an ultimatum to develop an
environmental management plan and conduct an environmental impact
assessment on the site’s adjourning community.
“We are giving you
two weeks to do this or we will come back here and shut this place
down. We cannot tolerate this; it is totally unacceptable to us.” She
added.
Like Julius Berger,
Arab Contractors and the rest of the Chinese companies mining stones at
the suburb were blasting the rock, causing earth tremors, polluting the
air with dust, and producing unsafe lakes from old mining pits but have
never conducted any environmental impact assessment on the site.
Their workers were also not protected with safety kits, neither were they insured.
Kamel Eljilbaly who
represented the management of Arab Contractors ltd argued that the
company had the necessary certifications but Ihebinike Kevin, an
official from the Federal Ministry of Environment, countered saying the
ministry had no record of such certifications neither did they have any
post mining plans from the company.
Other mining companies the team visited similarly argued that they had certificates and permits but could not present them.
Soon after the
midday blast by Crushed Rock Industries Ltd, the bulldozer left the
road, and Mrs njemanze and her team had a thorough fare and life in the
community went back to normal – on the face of it.
In the meantime, residents of the suburb as well as Maitama, the
adjourning high profile city, anxiously await the full implementation
of the environmental laws by the stone blasting companies.
