The Project aims to reduce occupational health and environmental hazards of artisanal (small-scale) gold mining communities in northern Guinea. The total population of the area covered by the project is estimated at 150,000 of which over 40,000 people are involved every year in gold mining activities. The unregulated burning of mercury amalgam is the primary method for gold extraction. It is widely reported that this method yields 1 kg of gold for every 1.3 kg of mercury employed.

Guinea, on the Atlantic coast of Africa, is one of the poorest countries in the world. Conakry, the capital, is a bustling, colorful and vibrant city of about 2 million struggling with the side effect of urbanization—pollution.
The lack of sewage and water treatment directly impacts human health in the city. Only a fraction of households, primarily in the wealthiest neighborhoods, have reliable access to running water at all, while well water is contaminated by bacteria and parasites. The city has no wastewater treatment facilities, and only 8% of households are connected to a piped municipal sewage system. The overwhelming majority of households have only basic latrines; in better homes, the floor is tiled and the hole is deep. As a result, diseases such as diarrhea, hepatitis A, poliomyelitis, typhoid, cholera, and meningitis run rampant.

Major Environmental Concerns

Air Pollution - From leaded gasoline, automobile exhaust, traffic jams and old cars. Also from fuel sources: charcoal, plastic bags and tires used to cook, and the burning of garbage. Leads to elevated cases of respiratory and cardiovascular disease.

Water pollution - Lack of sanitation services pollutes coastal marine ecosystem, contaminates food supply , increases instance of waterborne diseases (malaria, diarrhea, hepatitis A, poliomyelitis, typhoid, skin diseases, cholera, meningitis), and renders water undrinkable.

Lack of Infrastructure and Public Services - Residential and commercial garbage collection is just beginning to be put into place. No waste water treatment plant exists, although plans are afoot to install a sewage treatment facility in the western part of town. Human waste, when collected, is disposed of directly into the ocean or local dump.

Abandoned PCB capacitors from France, England, Germany and the US have contaminated approximately 3 acres in the center of Conakry. There have been significant observed impacts on human health and the environment because the water is entirely saturated with PCB waste. The black PCB oil runs directly through the site into a shallow channel that empties into the ocean. The site is within 100 yards of a village that relies on the water for drinking, cooking and bathing.

The capital of Mozambique, Maputo, lies on Maputo Bay. City residents rely on considerable amounts of fishery resources, both for consumption and economic reasons. Maputo Bay beaches also serve many residents and tourists as a leisure spot throughout the year. Yet despite its beauty, there is growing evidence that the waters inside the bay are polluted by untreated sewage coming from new developments in the city that are not connected to the existing sewage and drainage facility and water treatment plant.

Groundwater contamination from pit latrines and storm water effluent is polluting the bay to the extent that swimming is inadvisable in all but the most distant areas of the bay. The Ministry of Health tests fecal coliform levels regularly, and there is a general ban on the consumption of shellfish from the bay.

Although pollution from industry, automobiles and domestic waste continue to adversely affect the quality of life in Maputo and in Mozambique in general, the majority of the population lacks education and awareness of pollution issues and their relation to human health. A lack of public debate on the subject means a general lack of pressure on relevant institutions to act where human health is threatened by pollution contamination. The media, and especially the radio, is an important source of environmental information and education due to national coverage and transmission in local languages.

This project seeks to contribute to the reduction of occupational health hazards of small-scale gold miners in the Manica District of Mozambique by promoting the use of mercury retorts, while at the same time leading to overall reduction of environmental degradation in the region.

Manica is a district of Mozambique in the Manica Province with a population of 155,731 people. Manica District borders with the Republic of Zimbabwe in the west, the District of Gondola in the east, the District of Barué to the north through the Pungué River, and the District of Sussundenga in the south, which is bounded by the Revué and Zonué Rivers.

In the Manica District of Mozambique, more than 10,000 people are directly and indirectly involved in artisanal (small-scale) gold mining activities (garimpagem) as their main source of income. Most of “garimpeiros” (artisanal miners) use mercury to extract gold form the mineral ore; the amalgation process recovers very little of that mercury, which pollutes the nearby environment. The majority of the mercury used pollutes local waterways and soil as well as threatens the livelihood of plant and animal species in the area. Mercury amalgamation results in the discharge of an estimated 1000 tons of mercury per annum, representing about 30 percent of the world’s anthropogenic mercury releases.

The process of amalgamation transforms elemental mercury into methylmercury—one of the most toxic organic compound and a powerful neurotoxin that works its way up the food chain through bioaccumulation. According to the Ban Mercury Group, as much as 95 percent of all mercury used in small-scale gold mining is released into the environment, constituting a dangers on all fronts—economic, environmental and human health. It is estimated that over 13 million people work as artisanal miners worldwide

Mozambique, like many other developing countries, uses leaded gasoline. While the adverse health effects of lead have been well-documented and many of the world's countries have either completely phased out use of leaded gasoline or lowered lead concentrations, Africa remains as a bastion of leaded gasoline use. The primary lead exposure pathway is via airborne lead and lead in dust and soil. In congested urban areas vehicle exhaust from leaded gasoline accounts for some 90 percent of airborne lead pollution.

In 1998, an international framework was established to improve air quality in Sub-Saharan Africa. The first regional conference was organized by the World Bank on June 26th, 2001 in Dakar, Senegal, to discuss the issue of leaded gasoline as a major source of emissions in traffic-heavy towns and cities in developing countries. The harmful health effects of lead exposure in children, such as brain and nervous system damage, prompted the "Dakar Declaration." This was a joint effort by the World Health Organization and 25 sub-Saharan countries, the oil industry, civil companies, and other international agencies to eliminate leaded gasoline by December 31, 2005.

As part of this project, Blacksmith Institute helped the state Environmental Department and AfricaClean (a local air quality monitoring group) to design and implement a monitoring routine for vehicle emissions. The result was to improve emissions standards and overall air quality.

Artisanal, or small scale gold mining (also called ASM) is one of the most significant sources of mercury release into the environment in the developing world, with at least a quarter of the world’s total gold supply coming from such sources. ASM miners combine mercury with gold-carrying silt. The gold and mercury combine to form an amalgam, making recovery of the gold easier. The amalgam is subsequently heated with blow torches or over an open flame so that the mercury burns off, and gold is left at a purity of 70 to 80 percent. The gaseous mercury is subsequently inhaled by the miners, or by their immediate family, including their children. Mercury which is not inhaled during the amalgamation process settles into the surrounding environment, or circulates globally at regional and global scales for future deposition far from the site, where it is absorbed and processed by a variety of living organisms. As a consequence of its misuse, mercury amalgamation results in the discharge of an estimated 1000 tons of mercury per annum which represents about 30% of the world’s anthropogenic mercury releases. It is estimated that between 10 and 15 million artisanal and small scale gold miners worldwide, including 4.5 million women and 600,000 children1. This process transforms elemental mercury into methylmercury. Methylmercury is one of the most toxic organic compounds and a powerful neurotoxin that works its way up the food chain through bioaccumulation. According to UNIDO, as much as 95 percent of all mercury used in ASM mining is released into the environment, constituting a danger on all fronts – economic, environmental and human health. There are a number of cleaner technology alternatives to current methods of mercury amalgamation. The use of retorts during the mercury burn-off stage is a simple and cost-effective way to decrease the occupational exposure to mercury and minimize its release into the environment. Retorts allow for the efficient capture and reuse of mercury. 1 Veiga, M.M., Baker, R. (2004). Protocols for Environmental and Health Assessment of Mercury Released by Artisanal and Small Scale Miners, Report to the Global Mercury Project: Removal of Barriers to Introduction of Cleaner Artisanal Gold Mining and Extraction Technologies, GEF/UNDP/UNIDO, 170p.

This project takes the first steps to initiate the clean up of the most polluted region of Senegal – Hann Bay. The bay wraps around the industrial zone of the city of Dakar, Senegal. It is highly populated area, with local residents bathing in the water, and numerous fishing boats along the crowded shore. Industrial pollution along the banks from 1968 – 1997 has rendered the bay exceedingly toxic. This work will fund and support a group both within the Ministry of Industry and Ministry of Environment to create a credible implementation plan that will install an industrial waste treatment plan for the factories of the Hann region. Once the effluent treatment plant is in operation, work can begin to remediate legacy contamination from historical toxins.

Blacksmith was called to Senegal after the March 2008 deaths of 18 children under the age of five in the Dakar neighborhood of Thiaroye-Sur-Mer. The University Hospital believed that the children all died from acute lead poisoning due to constant exposure to lead dust in the air, soil and water. At the time, the main economic activity in the town was the informal recycling of used lead-acid car batteries, which involved the haphazard melting of car batteries to reclaim the scrap lead inside. Often done in open-air settings, the unregulated recycling exposed some 40,000 people to lead dust.

After the deaths in Senegal, the government worked quickly to shut down these battery-smelting operations. However, the legacy of many years of unregulated lead processing had rendered the entire community exceedingly polluted. In April 2008, the Ministry of Health in conjunction with the University of Dakar Toxicology division conducted blood tests among 41 children of Thiaroye-Sur-Mer - 100% of the children tested presented levels over 10 μg /dl, with the highest average being 158 μg /dl for the one-to-five year age group. According to most international standards, lead levels above 70 μg /dL in children are considered medical emergencies. A visit to the site by Blacksmith Institute staff at the same time revealed large amounts of lead dust present in homes, stores and streets throughout the community. Blacksmith Institute, the University of Dakar's Toxicology department, and Senegalese Ministry of Health and the International Lead Management Center (ILMC) came together to address the problem.

EnviPro is an environmental engineering NGO working on a project in the neighborhood of Vingunguti, in Dar es Salaam, to manage waste effluent from Vingunguti Abattoir, a local slaughterhouse. The slaughterhouse is dumping waste directly into the Msimbazi River, posing a significant health risk to residents of Dar es Salaam and surrounding areas, and EnviPro has designed a plan to install a wastewater treatment program for the plant.

Mikocheni, a neighborhood in Dar es Salaam, is home to four heavily polluted streams that run directly into the Indian Ocean. Untreated industrial and domestic waste is dumped into the waterways upstream, or into storm drains. Environmental Management Trust (EMT) is undertaking a project to monitor and stop this pollution of marine habitats and breaches. The project goals are to make wastewater treatment mandatory for all polluting industries, to stop residential houses from releasing waste from septic tanks into streams, and to ensure that sewers, storm drains and pumping stations are properly maintained to prevent leaks into the stream.

The government of Tanzania has developed a leaded gas phase-out action plan and it was discussed at a national stakeholders' meeting in Dar es Salaam in September, 2003. The country's planned phase-out of leaded gasoline is part of a larger initiative to ban the use of leaded gasoline in Sub Saharan Africa, as stated in the Dakar Declaration of 2001.

The Msimbazi river flows across Dar es Salaam City from the higher areas of Kisarawe in the Coastal region and discharges into the Indian Ocean. Because of its location, the river ahs been an important resource for residents in the Dar es Salaam city in various ways. Additionally, the river has been abused by different sectors as a dumping site for effluent and other pollutants produced by the city. As a consequence of the high levels of pollution, the river’s water quality has sharply decreased, and is no longer safe for consumption, domestic uses, or even irrigational uses.

Studies have indicated high levels of heavy metal in the river, run-off from local industry. Additionally, toxins in the river are also attributable to the presence of a waste dump site besides the river in Vingunguti area, which continually leaks greater and greater degrees of effluent into the water. A local abattoir located near the river is another significant source of discharge into the water. Sources of pollution from domestic households include poor sanitation systems mainly from septic tank and pit latrines that are used by about 85% of the city population. Agricultural activities using manure and fertilizers both in the basin and at the beds of the river have made the pollution problem more complicated. Ultimately, it is clear that the sources of pollution impacting the river are quite numerous and diverse.

So far, several stakeholder groups have gotten involved with this issue. Stakeholder groups, each with a particular focus, have taken the first steps towards intervening in this clear environmental hazard. For example, LEAT successfully filed a case in court to forbid the dumping of waste in the Vingunguti area. Enviropro, another Dar es Salaam based organization, worked to improve the abattoir. Such efforts are isolated however, and primarily prevent further contamination more than remediate the problem such that it currently exists. It is necessary at this point to synchronize the efforts of all interested parties, to maximize their overall effect.

The Lawyers Environmental Action Team (LEAT) works in Mwanza and surrounding regions with community-based organizations, non-governmental organizations, and the Mwanza City Council to identify problems and educate both polluters and victims of pollution about environmental laws. LEAT also conducts public interest litigation to force the cessation of polluting activities by both local factories and Mwanza City authorities. And LEAT works with surrounding towns and villages affected by polluting industries. Village and municipal leaders and residents have been educated about existing environmental laws used to combat environmental pollution, and they have been briefed on the Village Land Act of 1999 which stipulates rights of villagers regarding their land and other natural resource laws.

Zambia is a land-locked country in Central/Southern Africa with a population of about 10 million people. About 1.25 million people inhabit the capital, Lusaka, with another 2 million in the northern Copperbelt region. Major pollution-related problems are due to mining and industrial waste. In 2001, Blacksmith Institute helped to found ARE, an NGO focusing on a heavily polluted industrial area on the Kafue River. The Kafue River, part of the Zambezi basin, is a source of potable water for over forty percent of Zambia's population. It is also host to wildlife and birds. For decades, industries such as copper mines, metallurgical plants, textile plants, fertilizer factories, sugar processing plants, cement factories, various agricultural activities, and the Kafue Sewage Treatment Plant (KSTP) have polluted the river. Mineral deposits, chemicals, and suspended solids have led to overgrowth of aquatic weeds, choking river life. The continuous discharge of raw sewage into the Kafue River from the KSTP has contributed to the steady supply of nutrients (ortho-phosphates, nitrates, ammonia, etc.) ensuring the proliferation of various types of weeds, like the Salvina molesta, thereby causing eutrophication. Both aquatic life and human health are in danger. High incidences of environmentally mediated disease, such as gastro-enteritis, intestinal worms, and diarrhea diseases mostly in children have been reported from communities around the river and have been linked to drinking water from certain parts of the river. The raw sewer pollution of Kafue River could inadvertently lead to outbreaks of epidemics like cholera.

Bata Tannery uses various chemicals in tanning animal skins. Amongst these chemicals is chromium sulfate, which can easily be converted to either hexavalent or trivalent chromium. The effect of these chemicals on human and aquatic life is potentially lethal. Equally, the yeast production from Lee Yeast results in high concentrations of both chemical oxygen demand (COD) and biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) in the wastewater. The net effect is the reduction in the river system's oxygen concentration, leading to toxic anaerobic conditions.

For almost a century, Kabwe, a city of 300,000 in Zambia, has been highly contaminated with lead from a government-owned lead mine and smelter, Zambia Consolidated Copper Mines (ZCCM). Although the mine has been closed since 1994, residents continue to get sick and die from the contamination due to a lack of cleanup efforts on the part of the company and the government.

Lead is one of the most potent neurotoxins known to humans. When breathed in, lead directly attacks the central nervous system. It is particularly damaging to infants and children, and can cross the mother's placenta, putting unborn and nursing infants at risk. Yet, remarkably, the citizens of Kabwe have until recently been completely unaware that they are living in one of the most poisoned cities on earth. Blacksmith founded a local NGO, Kabwe Environmental and Rehabilitation Foundation (KERF), that has been bringing educational services to the community on how to limit exposure to lead, and nursing support for those who are ill.

Kabwe, the second largest city in Zambia with a population of 300,000, is located about 130km north of the nation's capital, Lusaka. It is one of six towns situated around the Copperbelt, once Zambia's thriving industrial base. In 1902, rich deposits of potentially dangerous lead were discovered in the mine and smelter located in the center of the town. Ore veins with lead concentrations as high as 20 percent have been mined deep into the earth and a smelting operation was set up to process the ore. Mining and smelting operations were running almost continuously up until 1994 without the government addressing the potential danger of lead. The mine and smelter, owned by the now privatized Zambia Consolidated Copper Mines, is no longer operating but has left a city with poison and toxicity from hazardous concentrations of lead in the soil and water.

During the operation there were no pollution laws regulating emissions from the mine and smelter plant. In turn, air, soil, and vegetation were all subjected to contamination, and ultimately, over some decades, millions of human lives were also affected. Some recent findings reveal the extent to which lead--one of the most potent neurotoxins known to man--has effected the health of Kabwe citizens. In the U.S., normal blood levels of lead are less than 10 ug/dL (micrograms per deciliter). Symptoms of acute poisoning occur at blood levels of 20 and above, resulting in vomiting, diarrhea, and leading to muscle spasms and kidney damage. Levels of over ten are considered unhealthy and levels in excess of 120 can often lead to death. In Kabwe, blood concentrations of 300 ug/dL have been recorded in children and records show average blood levels of children range between 60 and 120 ug/dL.

Children that play in the soil and young men that scavenge the mines for scraps of metal are most susceptible to lead produced by the mine and smelter. A small waterway runs from the mine to the center of town and had been used to carry waste from the once active smelter. For years there were no restrictions on the waterway, and in some instances local children use it for bathing. In addition to water exposure, workers are frequently exposed to lead by inhaling the dust that accumulated in their own backyards.

The Kafue River Basin in the Chingola District, Zambia has experienced heavy polluting over the past several decades. Konkola Copper Mines (KCM) is the primary source of this pollution, disposing of industrial waste products and various bio-chemical substances directly into the reservoirs. They are not the only polluters, however, as the region is home to roughly 40% of the nation’s socio-economic activity; a range of other industries are also at fault for the current state of the river basin: pulp-and-paper mills, fertilizer factories, granulation plants, abattoirs, textile manufacturers, and more. More than 93,000 tons of industrial waste are produced annually, most of which finds it way into the Kafue River. From there it flows into the Zambezi River – Africa’s fourth largest – that claims Zambia as its source and winds through Angola, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, and Mozambique before eventually emptying out into the Indian Ocean.

As a result of the pollution, the steadily increasing population in the Chingola District face severe water shortages. The full extent of the environmental impact has not yet been determined, but because of significant habitat destruction and land/soil degradation, the cost to local ecosystems is likely quite high. The color of the brilliantly blue Kafue River has slowly turned green. Indigenous fish have developed an unusual and unpleasant odor. Aquatic weeds dumped by some facilities into the river system, combined with nitrogen and phosphate waste from other facilities, together degrade biodiversity.

Both aquatic life and human health are in danger. High incidences of environmentally mediated disease, such as gastro-enteritis, intestinal worms, and diarrhea diseases mostly in children have been reported from communities around the river and have been linked to drinking water from certain parts of the river. The raw sewer pollution of Kafue River could inadvertently lead to outbreaks of epidemics like cholera.