DESPITE Dangote Cement‘s rapid expansion since taking over the Gboko Plant in Benue State, the host community is battling extreme water crises and environmental hazards.  These have been worsened by a failure to provide basic amenities as part of the company’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), Sinafi Omanga reports.

The sweltering temperature saw some residents of the Mbayion district in Gboko Local Government Area (LGA) of Benue State scampering to the Dangote Cement’s trench which overflows wastewater into their streams. 

A few steps away from the trench, where women, children, and young adults fetched the water, lies an open pit that spills black oil into the soil, killing all the plants in the surrounding area.

On some occasions, aquatic creatures such as fish and frogs were found dead, floating on top of the brackish water, apparently as a result of the pollution, several sources in the district told The ICIR.

After filling four gallons of 25 litres each, a 23-year-old resident, Terver Sesugh, who should ordinarily be happy for getting water, forlornly declared that the usage of the water would rather add more to his problems.

“This water itches my body. The only clean water around here is inside the Dangote Cement factory, but we don’t have access to it,” Sesugh remarked.

He added that only people who worked at the factory or had business to transact inside were allowed into the premises.

A visit to the waterside two days later, on April 6, led to another encounter with  28-year-old James Terungwa who collaborated that in addition to itching of the body, he suffered blurriness after bathing with the water.

Even though they know that the water is unhealthy for use, Mbayion residents are forced to utilise the only option (wastewater) available.

With seven council wards, Mbayion district has a population of 361,325, according to Nigeria’s last population census conducted in 2006, which The ICIR obtained from the Gboko office of the National Population Commission (NPC).

Growing water crisis

Orver Yongu, the national president of the Yion Development Association (YIDA), said over five hundred households are affected by the water crisis. YIDA is the community’s socio-cultural group at the forefront of the struggle for environmental remediation.

An environmental activist, Zack Uchir, said it was unfathomable that human beings were forced because of their precarious circumstances to use wastewater, “but this is where we find ourselves.”

Uchir, who claimed to have worked with the Dangote Cement factory as a casual staff for four years, said he witnessed first-hand how pollutants were discharged into surrounding streams without treatment.

“Once polluted with the black oil, the streams can no longer be used for domestic or even irrigation purposes. Our plants wither away once they have any contact with the water,” he said.

Water harmful on human body, lab analysis show

The ICIR visited three local clinics to investigate common ailments among residents. Two health workers confirmed that skin problems, caused by the wastewater, were the leading ailments.

Another clinic declined to disclose information for fear of victimisation, despite the reporter’s assurance of anonymity. A health worker at one of the clinics stated: “Almost all the patients with skin infections have come in contact with the wastewater.

“Other ailments such as typhoid and high blood pressure are also common here. We usually prescribe some antibiotics for treatment, but the people need to stop using that water,” she said.

To assess the pollution level, the reporter submitted the water sample to the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) in Abuja for laboratory analysis.

The result, certified by the monitoring agency, revealed high alkalinity and nitrite levels above acceptable specification, as well as salmonella and particles.

The accumulation of these pollutants renders the wastewater dangerously unsafe for use on the human body, said WaterAid Nigeria’s head of advocacy, policy and communications, Kolawole Banwo.

Banwo stated that consuming nitrite-contaminated water exposes families to methemoglobinemia, also known as blue-baby syndrome, a medical term for a disorder in children which results in too little oxygen being delivered to their cells.

“What we have learned in the course of our work about nitrite is that it compromises the lives and future of children from birth, that is if they live long enough.

“If a whole population is exposed to such water, it means that the heart of the community’s ability to reproduce across generations and live meaningful lives is threatened,” Banwo added, emphasising that alternative water sources should be “provided as soon as possible.”

Warning against nitrite contamination, the World Health Organisation’s (WHO’s) Guidelines for Drinking-water Quality says children below the age of six may become seriously ill and, if untreated, die.

The presence of high alkalinity explains why Mbayion residents experience itchy and chalky skin after coming in contact with the wastewater, according to a health expert at the Federal Ministry of Health who asked to be anonymous because he was not authorised to speak.

The burden of Industrial wastewater in Nigeria

The United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund -UNICEF, says 70 per cent of water in Nigeria at the point of consumption is contaminated and that “children are the most affected.”

Jane Bevan, UNICEF’s chief of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) programme disclosed that 117,000 children die in Nigeria each year due to water-related illnesses – the highest number of any nation.

Bevan also noted that 78 million children in Nigeria were at risk from the convergence of water-related threats such as scarcity and pollution.

Crisis persists in Mbayion despite Dangote’s pledge to tackle waste, climate change

Meanwhile, at the 12th Africa Cement Trade Summit which was held in November 2023, in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, the Group Managing Director of Dangote Cement plc, Arvind Pathak, reportedly said the company was positioned to tackle Africa’s waste and climate change issues through sustainable production of cement.

“Dangote Cement is dedicated to environmental sustainability and combating climate change. We have implemented a robust climate change policy that aligns our operations with global climate goals. 

“The environmental pillars of the company define the ways of entrenching sustainability by identifying, measuring and mitigating actual and potential environmental impacts of operations,” Pathak said.

“As you can see, the unmitigated environmental degradation in our community, which hosts the company’s oldest plant paints an opposite scenario,” Zach said.

The failure also contradicts the company’s pledge to create sustainable environmental management practices “through a proactive approach to addressing the challenges and opportunities of climate,” as stated on its website.

Twenty years of dashed hopes

Historically, the former Benue Cement Company, (BCC), originally co-owned by the federal and the Benue State governments was bought over by Africa’s richest billionaire, Aliko Dangote, with a net worth of $13.9 billion, according to Forbes’ 2024 ranking.

The acquisition of the factory in 2000 under the government’s privatisation programme was mired in controversy for several years as the host community and the Benue State government were opposed to it.

However, there was a thaw in the disagreement after the management of the cement company allayed the fears of the host community, paving the way for operations in the first quarter of 2004.

Speaking at the ceremony that marked the end of the feud, the chairman of the conglomerate, Dangote said: “This is not a joke, I am putting my name into it, you can write it down by February next year, BCC will be producing three million metric tones by the grace of God.”

As promised, Dangote not only renamed but also significantly upgraded its production capacity from 0.9 million metric tonnes annually (Mta) to 2.8 Mta and further to 4 million Mta in 2013. 

Surging turnover,  profit

This implies that, in twenty years, the Gboko cement factory has produced approximately 70 million tonnes of portland cement for the Dangote Group, a substantial increase from the 21.6 million tonnes produced by the government over the 24 years it operated the plant (1980-2004).

With a production capacity of about three million metric tonnes, the International Cement Review Magazine in 2004 predicted an annual turnover of N40 billion for the cement giant.

Using this prediction, the increased capacity of four million tonnes since 2013 may have seen the profits rise to N53 billion annually. In total, the Gboko plant may have generated over N943 billion ($624.7m at the current exchange rate of N1,509.45/$) since Dangote took over.

While the company publishes its annual profits from the cement business on its website, The ICIR could not find how much it makes from each plant in the ten African countries.

However, the exponential growth of the company has not significantly improved the environment and health of its Benue host community, prompting a series of peaceful and violent protests that have claimed several lives.

Worried about the deplorable condition of the Mbayion community, EnvironewsNigeria reported that the Benue State House of Assembly during a plenary on September 29, 2015, called on Dangote Cement Company to own up to her Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and adhere to proper Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) in the discharge of its duty.

Protests

Nine years later, some men and women in February 2024, camped at the Dangote Cement mining site in another peaceful protest against the company over dust emissions and water pollution.

Speaking with The ICIR, one of the protesters, Ave Daniel, said the community could no longer stand the frequency of “stones and dust flying” from the factory and the mining site into their homes.

“We are in danger because of the failure of Dangote to control dust. Water is also a big issue here,” Daniel said.

N943bn profit and 8,996 tonnes of dust emissions in 20 years

According to ScienceDirect, one of the world’s leading scientific, technical, and medical research organisations, a typical cement factory records an average emission of 0.13 kg of dust per ton of produced cement.

With a total production capacity of 2.8 mta from 2004  to 2012 and 4mta from 2013 to 2024, findings by The ICIR showed that the total dust emitted from the cement factory for twenty years is 8,996 tonnes, using ScienceDirect’s methodology.

“If put in 50kg bags of cement as the cement company does, the dust can fill approximately 180,000 bags. It can also fill two Olympic-sized swimming pools,” says Ibukun Akangbe, a data analyst with The ICIR.

Community residents lament

Several residents complained about dust constantly entering their eyes and nostrils, causing eye and respiratory irritations. The reporter also experienced watery eyes and grainy feelings after spending a few hours in the community.

“Once it is evening, the black substances (from the cement factory) begin to fall down like rain. We can’t even sit outside because the substances cause serious itching to our eyes,” said Terhile Kighir, one of the residents.

The Benue State Ministry of Water Resources, Environment, and Climate Change confirmed it received complaints about widespread dust in the Mbayion district during a joint monitoring compliance meeting with the management of the cement factory in 2023. 

It however claimed that that had become a thing of the past.

“The only thing the community complained about last year was the fugitive dust during production and vehicular movement. But when we went there sometime in March 2024, we didn’t see the dust again. The factory installed a precipitator to take care of the dust,” the ministry’s senior scientific officer, Deborah Mbakighir, told The ICIR.

While The ICIR could not independently verify whether the precipitator was installed or not, it found that dust emission from the plant continued to choke residents at the time of visit in April 2024. 

Studies have confirmed that prolonged exposure to cement dust can lead to a disabling and often fatal lung disease called silicosis.

Also, the emission of dust violates section 3 subsection 1 of  the National Environmental (Mining, Ores and Processing Minerals) Regulations 2009, which stipulates that “every facility shall adopt cleaner production processes and pollution prevention measures that would yield both economic and environmental benefits.”

Collapsed school building

Joseph Hilekaan, a 59-year-old teacher, sat in a wooden chair beside a collapsed building, perusing some dusty files when The ICIR arrived at his residence on April 4. The files were official records of the defunct Nomadic Primary School, Mbaav-Mbayion, in the Gboko LGA.

Hilekaan, the head teacher said the school, located about two kilometres from the mining site, collapsed in 2013. 

After the school collapsed, he mounted some tents to continue his teaching. But unable to cope after two years, the children were finally dismissed in 2015. Hilekaan blamed the school and its building’s collapse on the Dangote Cement factory’s quarrying activities.

“Eighty-three pupils were moved to other schools. Some immediately dropped out due to long distance,” he recalled.

The collapse of the school was confirmed On August 1, 2022, by the National Personnel Audit Unit of the Universal Basic Education Commission when its officials visited to ascertain the school’s condition.

“The school was captured, but learners are not going to the school because of the collapsed classroom buildings,” the visiting officials noted in the remarks section of the official logbook.

Hilekaan said appeals were made to the Dangote Cement Plc to rebuild the school in another location, “but the company didn’t do anything about it.”

Unfortunately, the local headmaster said he became more concerned about his deteriorating health condition than the painful interruption of his teaching career.

“I have high blood pressure which my doctor said was caused by the daily explosion from the site. I want to relocate from this place for the sake of my health.”

About four hundred metres from Hilekaan’s compound is a newly built three-bedroom bungalow and another single-unit apartment that had cracks on its walls. They are owned by 71-year-old Peter Uchir. 

“The breaking of stones at the mining site causes the whole ground to shake, causing our buildings to break,” the septuagenarian said.

Using heavy machinery to blast limestone is destructive to the earth’s surface, said Afolabi Lukman, an Abuja-based independent exploration geologist.

“Blasting of rocks can cause building collapse in the long term especially those with structural failures,” he noted.

Dangote’s hospital project in a state of dilapidation 

Equally disturbing to residents of the Mbayion community is the absence of a functional hospital where they can get proper diagnosis and treatment for using polluted water, inhaling cement dust and living perennially with deafening noise from the factory and the quarry site.

One of the Mbayion community leaders, Vangeryina Kucha, described a community hospital project by Dangote Cement as a ‘scrap.’

“After polluting our community, Dangote built a scrap and called it a hospital. Nothing is working there. No doctors, no medicine, nothing,” Kucha said.

He lamented that members of the community had resorted to using roadside dispensaries to treat undiagnosed ailments due to the absence of accessible healthcare services.

To verify Kucha’s claim, The ICIR visited the site of the hospital project which the company built in 2018 to address the healthcare challenges of the community. The reporter confirmed that although completed, the building which has never been opened to the public was in a dilapidated condition, with torn roofs and crumbling ceilings.

However,  one of the security guards barred the reporter from snapping the torn roofs and crumbling ceilings.

Benue government feigns ignorance of water crisis, FG keeps mum

The Benue State Ministry of Water Resources, Environment and Climate Change was created in July 1999 with the statutory responsibility to attend to issues of water supply, ecological and environmental challenges.

In a telephone interview, the ministry’s senior scientific officer, Mbakighir, who earlier spoke on dust emissions, said the ministry was not aware of the water crisis threatening the Mbayion district but acknowledged environmental hazards posed by the activities of the cement factory.

She disclosed that the ministry and the federal ministry of environment had largely depended on reports presented by the cement company and the community’s stakeholders during annual joint visits to the factory.

“We didn’t get this complaint the last time my ministry and the Federal Ministry of Environment visited the community (in March, 2024) during which we engaged both Dangote Cement and community stakeholders,” Mbakighir noted.

Mbakighir said following the reporter’s findings, the ministry would take steps to ensure that proper environmental remediations are carried out and the company is held accountable for its failures.

“We are not satisfied with the relationship between the cement company and the host community. They should do better than this. That is the community that gives the company a whole lot and it is our duty to protect the people and the environment against exploitation,” she said.

The ICIR sent a Freedom of Information (FOI) request dated June 11, to the Federal Ministry of Environment, seeking a copy of the EIA for the cement factory. However, more than a month after the request was submitted, the ministry has yet to respond.

This contravenes the FOI Act established in 2011, which stipulates that all public institutions must provide information upon request within seven days, or state why such a response would not be made available within seven days.

The struggle for environmental justice

Sebastian Hon, a senior advocate and an indigene of the Mbayion community criticised the Dangote Cement plc for failing to mitigate environmental degradation which has deprived residents of basic amenities.

“Our land is silted, and the air we breathe is toxic as a result of daily production. Talk of the deafening sounds from the mining site and there has never been a functional hospital since Dangote Cement took over the factory from the government.”

During an interview with The ICIR in April, Hon recalled that there was a staff clinic that served both staff and community members, “but that is non-existent since Dangote took over.”

However, restating the community’s resolve to get justice, Hon said: “We will fight, not with force, but with law.”

Also, YIDA in conjunction with the Supreme Council of Yion Traditional Rulers, has constituted a committee to dialogue with Dangote over the negative impact of its operations on the environment.

The committee alleged that: “For close to 20 years, the cement plant has not dug a single borehole or provided an alternative source of clean water to cushion the harmful effects of the pollution of the streams in the area.”

Yongu, YIDA’s president said: “Aside from a 10 million naira yearly bursary shared among hundreds of students, the cement plant has not done much for the community in terms of Corporate Social Responsibility.

“Among other things, we are asking Dangote Cement company to dig at least two boreholes in each of the seven area councils of Mbayion District,” Yongu said.

Environmental justice means different things to different residents of the Mbayion community. To some, like Kucha, it means provision of basic amenities such as water projects, hospitals and simply managing industrial wastes properly. 

Others like Uchir, the environmental activist, said it meant relocating the residents to pave the way for the company’s expansion.

Dangote keeps mum

During a visit to the cement factory on April 4, the community relations manager, Ivase Eugene, said only Jubril Abubakar, the zonal corporate communications manager whose office is in Abuja could respond to the reporter’s findings and questions. Ivase also gave Abubakar’s mobile number.

However, messages sent to the number were not responded to and calls showed the line was unreachable.

On June 10, The ICIR  submitted a letter of introduction requesting an interview with Abubakar and his secretary who received the letter said her boss would reach back to this organisation.

She also stamped an acknowledgement copy of the letter.

In a follow-up call two weeks later, the secretary, who simply identified herself as Maureen, disclosed that the letter was delivered to Abubakar and she was no longer in a position to speak further on it.

Also, messages and calls sent to the spokesperson of the Dangote Group, Anthony Chiejina after efforts with Abubakar proved abortive, were also not responded to at the time of filing this report.