Pascal Merland

Pascal Merland and Pierre-Yves Cailleton, Veoliaforce volunteers from Veolia Environmental Services, went to Nigeria for two weeks to support American NGO the Blacksmith Institute, appointed by UNICEF to decontaminate local villages.

You went to Nigeria for two weeks as part of an extensive lead poisoning prevention program. What was the situation on the ground?

So far, eight villages have been confirmed as contaminated. Two were decontaminated at the beginning of the summer, five are currently being worked on and one remains. The pollution was caused by recent mining of local rock that contains small traces of gold but also large quantities of lead. When performed without care, this gold mining carries risks. The ore is brought back to the village by the men to be ground down to a fine powder by the women and children. The lead dust that is released and widely distributed is a danger both to the environment and to human health. When inhaled or ingested it causes lead poisoning. All the children tested are showing abnormally high levels of lead in the blood. They are the biggest victims of this pollution: in some of these villages, 20% to 30% of children under the age of five have died in the last six months.

UNICEF is already present on the ground, isn't it?

It was UNICEF that appointed the Blacksmith Institute, an American NGO that monitors the most polluted sites on the planet for the United Nations. It was in this context that the Veolia Environnement Foundation was invited to contribute to the program, and with a very precise objective: to ensure the best use of UNICEF funds on the ground by optimizing the solutions deployed. Pierre-Yves Cailleton and I therefore went to the region to audit the processes. Practically speaking, the decontamination consists of isolating the polluted topsoil. The waste management process must prevent any renewed contamination from occurring in the next few years.

How is this hazardous waste usually treated?

It should be stored in compliance with local regulations and following risk and impact studies. The Zamfara, however, have no laws covering this issue and there is no geological or hydro-geological data available. Monitoring systems are therefore required to track this waste and flag up the slightest problem. In fact, our recommendations were largely focused on this area.

You say "recommendations" because you closely monitored the Blacksmith Institute's work.

The American teams began by approaching the Hausa tribes, informing the heads of families about the situation and therefore being able to enter their homes. A pollution map was then established by house and by district. Local teams were recruited to implement an action plan with the Blacksmith Institute working in a supervisory and coordination capacity. Houses in each village are first emptied and cleaned, and the floors loosened. A clearing team then comes in to take out the polluted earth. Clean soil is then brought in to replace the polluted earth before the families move back into their homes. Children falling sick are treated by Médecins sans frontières (MSF) [Doctors without Borders] and a cement floor is laid down in their houses to prevent them having further contact with the earth.

This is an important point: how do you guarantee that the houses have been properly decontaminated?

Samples are taken and analyses performed regularly during the entire decontamination operation. In the longer term, we would like to provide waste disposal sites as near as possible to the gold extraction sites, in case their uncontrolled exploitation continues despite prohibition by the Nigerian authorities.

How were you received by your partners during the trip?

My contacts were very keen to have some external support to optimize their operating processes, just as I was happy to be able to be in regular contact with the Foundation's team in Nanterre during my trip. Everybody is focused on the essential objective: to provide sustainable support to a population in danger.