In a remote region
of northern Nigeria the signs of a lead poisoning crisis caused by small-scale
gold mining are still visible especially among children, despite a four-year
clean-up project.
Four-year-old Umaima stares into space, seeming detached from all that
is going on around her in the small village of Sumke.
She has not been able to talk or hear since she was two. For some months
she was unable to walk until she received medical treatment.
"I feel lucky, because a child next door died of the same
illness," her mother says.
The contamination in Nigeria's Zamfara state is seen as the worst case
of lead poisoning in the world.
I'm never going to
stop this work because it's the only way I can earn a living around here”
Zamfara gold miner
More than 460 children have died since 2009, and the health of thousands
has been affected.
The lead is a deadly by-product of the small-scale gold mining industry
in Zamfara.
The government says the mining is illegal, but in this rural Muslim
region of north-western Nigeria it has been going on for generations - and it
was a discovery of greater deposits that has led to the recent boom in digging
for gold.
Dangerous
work
At the Darata gold mine, a group of men gather around several deep dark
pits, waiting for their colleagues who are several dozen feet under the ground
hacking away at the rock.
It is dangerous work and some are down the pits for several days at a
time.
"I'm never going to stop this work because it's the only way I can
earn a living around here," says one of the miners as he emerges from a
deep pit.
"I know some people have died from poisoning, but not from my
family and even if anything were to happen it would be a sign of God's
will," he tells me.
Village
dust
The sacks of rock which are brought up from underground are carried on
the backs of motorbikes to a nearby processing site.
Here dozens of men and young boys work under the 45C (113F) heat
hammering rocks, operating grinding machines and sifting for gold.
The danger is in the dust. It is full of toxic lead, and is carried to
the workers' homes on their clothes and tools.
Most at risk are the children because the dust turns their villages into
a poisonous playground.
Their young bodies are vulnerable to the effects of the toxins.
This crisis began in 2009. The government has not stopped the activity,
though it says it will introduce safer mining practices - which are yet to be
seen on the ground.
President Goodluck Jonathan pledged $4m (£2.6m) in May 2012, however,
the money was not released until January.
It took an online and media campaign by local and international organisations
to get the funds released.
Mercy Abang, a journalist and activist from Citizens Platform, was part
of that drive, and says it is not enough for the money to be released but it
also has to be used appropriately.
"It's not news that we have a history of misappropriation of funds
in Nigeria," she says.
"The money has to pass through several stages to get down, and it
is necessary for us to follow the money at each stage."
Bagega village is the last of the eight affected communities to be
cleaned up over the last four years.
Using shovels, workers dig up and remove all the contaminated soil and
replace it with clean earth - in some cases the walls of these mud buildings
have to be plastered afresh.
It is a painfully slow process, and is not helped by the fact that the
equipment promised by the government has not arrived.
No children in this village can be treated for the effects of the
poisoning until this clean-up is completed.
Long-term
fears
In Sumke village, where the toxic soil has been removed, the medical
charity Medecins Sans Frontiers (MSF) runs a treatment clinic where mothers
bring their affected children to receive medicine.
It is a complicated, drawn out process, which for some children could
last up to 15 years.
But the aid agencies will not stay that long.
MSF's Zackaria Mwatia worries that the government might not be able to
take over from them.
"The main challenge we face is we don't see [the] federal ministry
of health on the ground," he says.
"We would like them to send the doctors, the nurses, the laboratory
scientists so that we build their capacity.
"They would have built their skills and they will be able to handle
this programme successfully."
Health Minister Dr Muhammed Pate said MSF had no reason to worry.
"This is a man-made disaster; it is not a natural disaster -
illegal mining is the underlying reason for this lack of awareness is behind
it," he says.
"We can't sit behind and… not take action. Government will continue
to take all steps to protect the lives and well being of its people."
But as the blame is traded, thousands of children in these villages face
a difficult future.
As the mining continues it is they who will pay a high price.