How contaminated Osun river ruined the fortunes of women farmers

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The activities of illegal miners have damaged the Osun River and scores of families making a living from farming around it.

ixteen-year-old Samuel Agboola has a passion for higher education but something is hindering his burning aspiration: His mother’s vegetable farm which was used to fund his education has crumbled.

Five years ago, his mother, Yeyeoni Agboola, had a vegetable farm by the riverbank at railway line in Alekuwodo area of Osogbo, Osun State, but had to switch to fruit selling when the river became polluted.

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A decade after the death of her husband, Mrs Agboola ventured into vegetable farming to cater for her children and their education. She said fortune favoured her until the river became contaminated. Samuel, her last child, dropped out of secondary school recently.

“With the help of God, farming, and a few other things, I built my first house,” she said of how vegetable farming had paid her bills in the past.

To many women in this community, vegetable farming is easy, timely and highly profitable.

“… this business is lucrative, many just look at us because we look dirty, but little did they know about the profit we make in selling vegetables ” Deborah Adedokun, one of the women vegetable farmers said.

The good days continued until the advent of the ‘gold rush.’ The land these women till to provide for their family recently lost its value due to a ‘gold rush’ in Osun State.

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The illegal mining of gold in the state, including around the riverbank, polluted the river, the source of clean water and irrigation for the women farmers. As the river became polluted, farmers’ harvests reduced and many including Mrs Agboola had to abandon farming.

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Samuel’s education and his mother’s vegetable farming business are just a few affected by this pollution caused by illegal mining which seems unstoppable in Osun.

Fish farming affected

Before mining polluted the river, many people — including foreign and local tourists — benefitted from the Osun River. But for many, that is no longer the case.

“The mining is the main thing that contaminates the river and nothing else,” said Toyin Aladeitan, a widow who used to sell fried fish in the community.

Mrs Aladeitan also built a house from her petty fish trading. Her children would go fishing in the river for their mum to cook and hawk. This was their routine until the river got polluted.

Kehinde Aladeitan hold fish he caught overnight in the river
Kehinde Aladeitan hold fish he caught overnight in the river.

Today, Mrs Aladeitan’s petty fish business barely exists since the number of fish in the river reduced due to the pollution and the widow cannot afford imported fish sold in cold rooms.

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“We hardly catch fish in the river, this is what I caught in the river since yesterday night,” 14-year-old Kehinde Aladeitan, one of the widow’s sons, said as he showed this reporter a few fishes in a bucket.

Osun River pollution fuelling poverty

The vegetable farming business provided income for many women in the community, including Samuel’s mother.

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But gold mining has polluted the river through which the vegetables grow, resulting in the discolouration of the water and the deterioration of its ecosystem. This pollution does not only affect the women’s livelihoods but also the schooling of children like Samuel.

He dropped out of school in 2020, while he was still in the Senior Secondary School, SS1, due to financial constraints.

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Samuel told these reporters he just wanted to go to school.

“I did JAMB this year myself, but I have not been able to check it.”

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The teenager said he had to find another means to fund his education since his mother’s source of income could not help him further.

“I used to have money when I was doing the logistics (popularly called dispatch drivers) and from there with the help of my brother too, I did my WAEC,” he said proudly. The West Africa Examination Council (WAEC) conducts the secondary school leaving examination.

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As fish became scarce in the river and vegetable growth became stunted, the sources of income for the locals disappeared, forcing them to seek alternative means to make ends meet. The locals said they had been forced to adjust their food routine.

“We eat only once per day,” Samuel, the last of five children, said.

Another widow around the railway, Senior Oluwanifise, stopped farming early last year when she noticed changes in her vegetables.

“I stopped when I noticed that my vegetables refused to grow normally and they change in colours,” she said adding that the greens all died at some point.

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Fomer bank of the river used for farming vegetables by the women, but has been abandoned
Fomer bank of the river used for farming vegetables by the women, but has been abandoned

While some stopped farming, Mrs Adedokun still manages to farm, but inconveniently. She narrated how she had to move away from the riverbank to continue her farming. This time around, she would dig four to six feet holes in the ground to get water to wet her small plantation.

“I dig up to 6 feet holes around the farm space I use now so that I would use the neat water from it to wet my vegetables,” the 50-year-old said.

Long-term risk

The pollution did not only disrupt the lives of the women and their families, it also posed significant long-term risks. Experts warned that the presence of heavy metals like acid, mercury, and lead in the river water could have severe health consequences.

Anthony Adejuwon of Urban Alert, an Osogbo-based civic advocacy group, told Aljazeera recently that if the pollution of the river persists, it would pose a threat to the lives of the people.

“Just look into the future, can you imagine the amount of cyanide, lead and mercury that will be in each person’s system?” Mr Adejuwon wondered.

Discolorated Osun River at Alekuwodo area
Discolorated Osun River at Alekuwodo area

Nkem Torimiro, a senior lecturer at the Microbiology department of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife said living around the river is dangerous for the people and their unborn children are at risk of neurological disorders.

“Children exposed to high levels of lead could have behavioural disorders, learning disabilities and low IQ – which is irreversible,” she said.

Ministry reaction

The permanent secretary of the Ministry of Environment and Sanitation in Osun, Olawuni Oladele, said the government had consulted a consultant to see to the affairs of the river while making efforts to check illegal miners.

“We are now working on the purification of the river, we want to purify it, we have engaged a consultant and the consultant will block up the tributaries where the water is entering, they even went there to inspect the river.

“They are going to apply chemicals to stop the flow and clean it. And after washing the golds in the river they will clean the rivers, those are the measures.”

He added that several efforts had been made to stop the illegal miners but they remain adamant.

“We are not negotiating with them but we are giving them the condition to operate with, if it is negotiating it means we are getting something from them or bargaining. But we are giving them conditions to follow, which they must follow strictly,” he said.

(This reporting was completed with the support of the Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development).

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Sanya Onayoade

Continental Editor, North America

SANYA ONAYOADE is a graduate of Mass Communication and a Master of Communication Arts degree holder from the University of Ibadan. He has attended local and international courses on Media, Branding, Public Relations and Corporate Governance in many institutions including the University of Pittsburgh; Reuters Foundation of Rhodes University, South Africa and Lagos Business School. He has worked in many newspaper houses including The Guardian and The Punch. He was the pioneer Corporate Affairs Manager of Odua Telecoms Ltd, and later Head of Business Development and Marketing of Nigerian Aviation Handling Company (NAHCO Plc).

He has led business teams to several countries in the US, Asia and Europe; and was part of an Aviation investment drive in West Africa. He has also driven media and brand consultancy for a few organizations such as the British Council, Industrial Training Fund, PKF Audit/Accounting Firm and Nigeria Stability and Reconciliation Programme. He is a Fellow of Freedom House, Washington DC, and also Fellow of Institute of Brand Management of Nigeria. Sanya is a member of Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR), Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON) and Project Management Institute (PMI). He is a 1998 Commonwealth Media Awards winner and the Author of A Decade Of Democracy.
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Morak Babajide-Alabi

Continental Editor, Europe

Morak Babajide-Alabi is a graduate of Mass Communication with a Master of Arts Degree in Journalism from Napier University, Edinburgh, United Kingdom. He is an experienced Social Media practitioner with a strong passion for connecting with customers of brands.

Morak works as part of a team currently building an e-commerce project for the Volkswagen Group UK. Before this, he worked on the social media accounts of SKODA, Audi, SEAT, CUPRA, Volkswagen Passenger Cars, and Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles. In this job, he brought his vast experience in journalism, marketing, and search engine optimisation to play to make sure the brands are well represented on social media. He monitored the performance of marketing campaigns and data analysis of all volumes of social media interaction for the brands.

In his private capacity, Morak is the Chief Operating Officer of Syllable Media Limited, an England-based marketing agency with head office in Leeds, West Yorkshire. The agency handles briefs such as creative writing, ghostwriting, website designs, and print and broadcast productions, with an emphasis on search engine optimisation. Syllable Media analyses, reviews, and works alongside clients to maximise returns on their businesses.

Morak is a writer, blogger, journalist, and social media “enthusiast”. He has several publications and projects to his credit with over 20 years of experience writing and editing for print and online media in Nigeria and the United Kingdom.

Morak is a dependable team player who succeeds in a high-pressure environment. He started his professional career with the flagship of Nigerian journalism – The Guardian Newspapers in 1992 where he honed his writing and editing skills before joining TELL Magazine. He has edited, reported for, and produced newspapers and magazines in Nigeria and the United Kingdom. Morak is involved in the development of information management tools for the healthcare sector in Africa. He is on the board of DeMiTAG HealthConcepts Limited, a company with branches in London, Lagos, and Abuja, to make healthcare information available at the fingertips of professionals. DeMiTAG HealthConcepts Limited achieved this by collaborating with notable informatics companies. It had partnered in the past with Avia Informatics Plc and i2i TeleSolutions Pvt.

Out of work, Morak loves walking and also volunteers on the board of a few UK Charity Organisations. He can be reached via http://www.syllablemedia.com
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Ademola Akinbola

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Brief Profile of Ademola Akinbola

Ademola AKINBOLA is an author, publisher, trainer, digital marketing strategist, and a brand development specialist with nearly three decades of experience in the areas of branding, communication, corporate reputation management, business development, organizational change management, and digital marketing.

He is the Founder and Head Steward at BrandStewards Limited, a brand and reputation management consultancy. He is also the Publisher of The Podium International Magazine, Ile-Oluji Times, and Who’s Who in Ile-Oluji.

He had a successful media practice at The Guardian, Punch and This Day.

He started his brand management career at Owena Bank as Media Relations Manager before joining Prudent Bank (now Polaris Bank) as the pioneer Head of Corporate Affairs.

The British Council appointed him as Head of Communication and Marketing to co-ordinate branding and reputation management activities at its Lagos, Abuja, Kano and Port Harcourt offices.

In 2007, he was recruited as the Head of Corporate Planning and Strategy for the Nigerian Aviation Handling company. He led on the branding, strategic planning and stakeholder management support function.

His job was later expanded and redesigned as Head of Corporate Communication and Business Development with the mandate to continue to execute the Board’s vision in the areas of Corporate Planning and Strategy, Branding and New Businesses.

In 2010, he voluntarily resigned from nacho aviance to focus on managing BrandStewards, a reputation and brand management firm he established in 2003. BrandStewards has successfully executed branding, re-branding and marketing communication projects for clients in the private and public sectors.

Ademola obtained a M.Sc. Degree in Digital Marketing & Web Analytics from Dublin Institute of Technology in 2016, and the Master of Communication Arts degree of the University of Ibadan in 1997. He had previously obtained a Higher National Diploma (with Upper Credit) in Mass Communication from Ogun State Polytechnic, Abeokuta.

He has published several articles and authored five management books.

He has benefitted from several domestic and international training programmes on Brand Management, Corporate Communications, Change Management and Organizational Strategy.
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