THE MINING TRAGEDY IN ZAMFARA
The authorities could do more to ensure safety in the mines
In what is becoming recurring tragedies, dozens of illegal gold miners were recently buried alive at Kadauri in Maru Local Government Area of Zamfara State. The mining pit collapsed after several hours of torrential rains while the victims were working underground. A local resident involved in the rescue efforts said not less than 13 bodies were retrieved from the rubble while 15 were rescued, some with varying degrees of injuries. Like previous such incidents, many would have survived if there was a timely and efficient emergency response system. Indeed, some rescuers reportedly suffocated to death while trying to dig out victims.
Despite the dangers inherent in illegal mining, there is still a prevalence of the business across the country, particularly in the north. In the last one year, so many mining pits had collapsed, trapping and killing hundreds of people, who are driven mainly by hunger and poverty. In June last year, a mining pit in Galkogo Community, Shiroro Local Government Area of Niger State, collapsed, burying dozens of people whose bodies were never recovered. But the epicentre of this tragedy is in Zamfara State where repeated scenes of funeral due to illegal mining activities have not persuaded the workers to give up the dangerous business. When no fewer than nine people were recently buried beneath the earth due to a mine pit collapse, there would have been no trace of them but for the fact that there was a lone survivor who was partly buried and had to be subsequently rescued.
Zamfara is undoubtedly the headquarters of Illegal mining in the country, where armed gangs often control gold fields, fuelling violence and deadly accidents. According to the government spokesman, Mustapha Kaura, there are about 20,000 illegal miners from within and outside of the country who had taken over the mining sites in the state. Kaura expressed fear that many more mining pits could collapse due to the excessive rainfall currently being experienced in the state. An added concern is often the nexus between unregulated mining, banditry and other criminal activity, such as kidnappings for ransom and community unrest. Besides, as has been confirmed in Zamfara, some of the illicit revenues from the business rival state budgets.
Beyond the issue of the cost to the environment, the country is losing money to the tunes of billions on annual basis. The House of Representatives ad hoc committee on illegal mining recently estimated the cost lost to unregulated mining operations at $9 billion yearly. That’s a lot of money to a sickly economy. But while artisanal mining makes up about 80 per cent of all mining activities, the sector is not properly defined, despite the efforts of the current government to standardise the procedure and terms of artisanal mining. “There is a lot of confusion in the industry about what is illegal mining, unregulated mining and informal mining. Those are terms that have come up overtime and it is really about what level of responsibility the government is willing to take for itself,” said Global Rights executive director, Abiodun Baiyewu.
However, we must also acknowledge some of the reforms initiated by the current administration. These include improving mobility for field officers and organising artisanal miners into cooperatives. The challenge of the moment is how to sustain these efforts and improve on them to significantly reduce the incidents of illegal mining in the country. There should also be more attention on how to properly organise the sector to attract local and foreign investors. And more importantly, there is need for government to emphasize safety standards to prevent future and avoidable tragedies. There should be a coordinated emergency response system that is reliable and efficient.
