Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from GIN
(TriceEdneyWire.com) – A concerted online and media campaign appears to have won the release of $4 million needed to clean water in Nigeria’s Zamfara state, made toxic by lead dust.
In 2009, Nigerians were shocked to learn that hundreds of children had died of lead poisoning in what was called one of the worst cases, if not the worst case, of lead poisoning worldwide. Funds were promised by President Goodluck Jonathan seven months ago.
But the money only became available after editorials in national newspapers, pressure from Doctors Without Borders and a Facebook campaign by the Nigerian Youth Climate Action Network and Human Rights Watch. The funds will help 1,500 children in urgent need of life-saving medical treatment in northern Zamfara state, HRW said.
Dangerous levels of lead dust are released by gold miners breaking open rocks near homes, according to the group Doctors Without Borders. Children suffer more from lead poisoning because their size makes them more vulnerable to its effects.
Decontamination teams will start work next week when DWB staff will begin screening children. Treatment will follow shortly after that.
"As long as the remediation is successful, as long as they not ingesting large amounts of lead, then we can flush the lead out of the blood," the medical group said.
In total, 460 children died and a further 4,000 were contaminated.