Maryam Ibrahim was skipping ropes around her home in Dutse Mpape in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, a few years ago, her tiny feet barely touching the dusty floor in the compound. Then, the earth beneath her began to shudder.
The sound of explosives crackled through the air, sending tremors through the walls and rattling the windows. Just four years old, Maryam’s eyes grew wide with fear, her frozen smile turning into shock. Her father Aliyu Ibrahim wrapped her snugly to his chest. The blasts echoed through their lives, a constant reminder of the fragility of their world.
Six years ago, Chinese quarrying company Perfect Stone Quarries Limited started operating in the area, blasting rocks without warning and disrupting the lives of many families like the Ibrahims by exposing them to the great health risks of pollution associated with living close to a quarrying site.
Medical officer Peter Yawe, who is also the founder of public health initiative Healthy Liver Initiative, said that the proximity of these rock blasting activities to indigenous communities plays a crucial role in determining the extent of exposure to pollutants and the resulting health effects.
“Communities situated closer to these sites are likely to experience higher concentrations of airborne pollutants, increasing their risk of short-term health effects such as respiratory tract irritation and eye discomfort. Long-term exposure to high levels of air pollutants can contribute to the development of chronic health conditions, including respiratory diseases and cardiovascular disorders,” Yawe said.
Nigeria’s National Environmental Regulations for Quarrying and Blasting Operations stated in 2013 that “a person shall not locate a quarry or engage in blasting within three kilometers (3km) of any existing residential, commercial or industrial area.” According to satellite imagery, the distance of Ibrahim’s house from the blasting site is less than 0.5km.
More than a dozen residents in Dutse Mpape shared stories of frustration and gloom with The Xylom, resulting from their proximity to this site. Many complained of incessantly dusty air, while others worried their aged parents would develop hearing issues due to the loud noise.
“We have many people with high blood pressure. They keep complaining but no one is listening to them. This thing is affecting people so much,” said local gardener Shadrach Unana who moved to the community 11 years ago. “There was even a man whose leg was broken by a flying stone.”
Engr Karikati Stephen, Perfect Stone Quarries Manager, said to The Xylom in an exclusive interview that rocks occasionally fly out towards the community, but measures are in place to curtail the effect.
“Wherever we have a quarry site, there is always encroachment for mining generally. For that reason fly rocks affect those that have encroached into the company’s property,” he said. “Now the company has taken a step to further ask for the extension of the rock to be far away from residential areas and that will solve the problem of flyrock affecting settlers.”
When reporters from The Xylom tried to visit the company’s facility in Mar. 2024, they were denied access. Further attempts to visit the facility were also unsuccessful.
Explosive operations cause harm, disruption
Rita Israel lives just two apartments away from Ibrahim’s house with her three kids. A mother of three, she told The Xylom about her harrowing experiences of being a resident of the community. She has noticed a rapid and irregular heartbeat due to the frequent explosive sounds from the blasting site. She said a nurse at the nearby primary healthcare centre checked her pulse and noticed an abnormally high reading.
In Nov. 2023, as she prepared lunch for her family, the company's siren pierced the air, signaling the start of the day’s blasting operation. Abandoning her meal preparations, she gathered her children and trekked out of their compound to keep her family safe from any potential accidents. She waited a while but nothing happened, so, she returned home to take a nap, but the peace was short-lived. About an hour later, the violent vibrations and heavy blasting sounds jolted her awake, and she saw that her ceiling boards had been dislodged and significant portions of her walls had been cracked. Rita said some residents reported injuries in the aftermath of the day.
“Whenever they want to blast, even if it’s happening under the rain, we are all expected to leave our houses because of flyrock or casualty induced by the heavy vibration. During the week, they blasted again, the wall here (pointing to the right wall) cracked badly and may soon fall. The ceilings fell on me too. We later realised that a man was injured at the head while the windows glasses in his house were all shattered," she said. "God is our only saviour in this community."
Private architect Olorunfemi Kehinde, who lives in a community near the British-owned quarry Zeberced Quarry Limited, said he has taken an unconventional approach to demonstrate the intensity of the vibrations caused by this quarry’s daily blasting operations. He places a cup of water on his table, using it as a makeshift seismograph to gauge the violent shaking that rattles his home. The tremors generated by the blasts are so powerful that, depending on their intensity, they can cause the water in the cup to oscillate violently or even spill over the rim.
During one of Zeberced’s blasting operations in 2022, the left wing fence outside Kehinde’s apartment complex collapsed. Had the kids been playing outside, the outcome would have been a lot different, Kehinde said. When the eight families who were served by the fence tried to reach Zeberced for assistance, the company didn’t respond. So, only through collective efforts from tenants and the landlords was the fence repaired.
“There was no positive response from [Zeberced.] We’re just helpless. Nobody to talk to. Everybody has just taken it like that,” Kehinde said. A yet-to-be-completed building next to his apartment caved in a week later during another heavy blasting.
Zeberced initiated the production of granite in 2009, with a granite mine covering an area of over 3 million square meters. Ever since then, its activities have been pervasive, enveloping the entire area with constant rock blasting, stone milling, using noisy heavy machinery in the process. The incessant milling sound is a shrill reminder of the quarry’s presence; for newcomers, it can be a headache-inducing experience. Trucks transporting granite and sand from the quarry are a common sight, adding to the daily disturbances caused by the company’s operations.
Nigeria earned a sum equivalent to $11 million in USD from the solid minerals sector in 2021, an increase greater than 50% compared to 2020 revenue. In 2021, the minerals with the largest production volume were granite, limestone, laterite, clay and sand. Materials conglomerate Dangote Plc accounted for the highest production with a total production of 28.8 million tons, while Zeberced mined 3.3 million tons.
Before the 2022 incident, Kehinde’s toddler son would wake from his sleep and start crying whenever there was a blast. Younger than 3 years old at the time, he would not stop crying for hours until the doctor examined him and found that he was triggered by shock.
Residents told The Xylom that they also breathe in heavy dust due to the quarrying and suffer from lung diseases and chest tightness.
“We can wash our cars in the morning and in two hours, you will notice the car is full of white particles. The same white particles are always seen on our clothes when spread for drying in the compound,” said a resident in Kehinde’s neighborhood.
Using Code For Africa’s air quality sensor device, The Xylom measured particulate matter (PM) 2.5 and 10 around Kubwa for 3 months from Jan. to Mar. 2024. The device measured an average PM10 concentration of 45.8 μg/m³ compared to the World Health Organization standard of 45 µg/m³. For PM2.5, it captured an average value of 39.2 μg/m³ against the WHO standard of 15 µg/m³. PM2.5 are small particles that can enter the lungs and cause damage. Compared to that, PM10 is less harmful due to its larger size and does not penetrate into the lungs.
Rose Alani, head of the Air Quality Monitoring Research Group at the University of Lagos, said the community is at great risk of poor air quality due to the high concentration of dust particles. Alani said the residents may also suffer from the release of harmful pollutants like carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxides that are byproducts of the quarrying process.
The Xylom attempted to visit the Zeberced facility in Mar. 2024 and then again in Apr. 2024. Reporters were denied access both times. Mahmut Bulduk, the company’s spokesperson, told these journalists he was not permitted to speak on the matter.
Blasting operations worsen air quality
According to the Solid Minerals Development Fund, Nigeria’s mining sector has 44 different types of commercially viable minerals worth an estimated $700 billion but limited capital injections, inadequate geo-mapping tools and widespread illegal mining have left the country struggling to capitalize on its reserves.
In Karshi, an agrarian community sitting on the boundary between Nigeria’s capital and the north-central’s Nasarawa state, the blasting activities of Kaidi Investment Limited have made the lives of residents a hell on earth. The estate is one of the projects of the Nigerian Army’s Post-Service Housing Development Limited, which was built to provide affordable housing for personnel and civilians. However, residents said the resulting side effects from the blasting site, which is less than half a kilometer away, have not allowed them to retire in peace.
Benedict Loveday, the vice chairman of the state, told The Xylom that whenever Kaidi wants to commence their blasting activities, the alarms ring for 15-20 minutes to alert residents to leave their homes to avoid injuries due to collapse or other health issues.
However, residents say since Jun. 2023, they were caught unaware by the explosive sounds of the quarry. Loveday said that during a meeting with the quarry’s leadership, he was told the alarm was faulty. As of Mar. 2024, the alarm system was still not repaired.
“So, just like that while we’re just relaxing with our family members in the house, the blast would just take us unaware,” Loveday said.
“The last blasting was four major blasts in a single day. We know it’s very harmful to our health but then, there’s nothing we can do about it. This is our home, this is where we live.”
In Oct. 2023, the estate heard a disruptive explosion without any notice and knew it was from the Kaidi blasting site. The explosion was impactful enough to leave indelible scars: from cracks on the majority of the building to several broken windows and broken interiors within homes. Two of the residents said they also suffered from shock as a result of that blast.
“[Resident] Mr Charles’s wife has been suffering from high blood pressure. It affected her after the blast,” Loveday said. “We had a lot of chandeliers that fell down, glass windows broken and cracks on walls. So, the blast has gone on to affect both our health conditions and also the house we live in.”
Loveday’s neighbor Daniel Owen said that the last two blasts were some of the largest his family had ever experienced. “My child got shocked. He woke up from sleep. And my mother-in-law ran to me in the kitchen where I was doing the dishes. She came to me and asked what's happening here. I told her it's the blast. She said, no, she can't stand it.”
Resident Peter Ogbange said whenever a rock blasting is carried out at the quarry, he ties a wrapper around his kids’ noses to prevent them from breathing in the dust.
Among all the communities where the air quality data were captured, Karshi deals with some of the worst scores. Within the 3 months of continuous observation, the devices measured an average PM10 concentration of 149.6 μg/m³ (more than three times higher than the WHO standard) and PM2.5 concentration measures at 142.7 μg/m³ (almost 10 times higher than the WHO standard.) Data from the sensors also showed spikes in PM10 concentrations that correspond with dates when the quarrying company was carrying out blasting operations.
The Xylom reached out to the Nigerian Army Housing Scheme on May 3, 2024 for a comment on how the quarrying site was approved so close to a residential housing project, but no response was received as of Sep. 20, 2024.
Salifou Hammani, a manager at Kaidi Investment Limited, told The Xylom that the company has reduced its rock blasting operations to three times a week after Lafia’s community resident submitted a complaint to the mines ministry last year.
“They asked us to reduce the rock blasting to two times a month, which is how we have been doing it. We have not heard their complaints again,” he said. However, residents near the quarry say that blasting operations have still continued at their regular pace, despite the company’s repeated claims about reducing the number of blasts.
Corporations seek profit over public health
Dele Alake, minister of the Solid Minerals Development Fund, said in an interview with The Xylom that all quarry companies have to meet certain environmental obligations before they can get their license. This includes an environmental and social impact assessment “which involves conducting baseline studies of the environment of the virgin land, ecological studies, water and soil samples evaluation, assessment of the vegetation amongst others.”
The Mines Environmental Compliance is responsible for ensuring that operators comply with environmental standards and investigates any breaches during periodic inspections and if there are any complaints.
Alake said that while companies are supposed to keep a safe distance from communities, they often end up being closer than permissible due to urban development which brings people closer to these sites. In cases where civilians become ill as a result of blasting activities, the companies are mandated to place better preventative measures and pay for the treatment of the affected.
But Barnabas David, a union member of quarry marketers in Abuja who has been advocating for the communities near quarrying sites, said most quarry companies are more concerned about profit rather than mitigating the impact of their activities on the people.
“The quarries in Abuja are more business-centric than putting attention to how the community will develop. Their business is to just make their money and then leave,” he said.
This story was produced in partnership with the Pulitzer Center.
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