NESREA Urges Best Industrial Practices

The National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency (NESREA), has called for the adoption of best practices in the mining industry to ameliorate the impact of artisanal mining.

The Director General of the agency, Dr Ngeri Benebo, made the call at the opening of a two-day workshop on “sustainable mining practices and techniques for artisanal miners’’ in Ezza South Local Government Area of Ebonyi.

Benebo, who was represented by Mr Godwin Atsegwasi, a deputy director in NESREA, cautioned artisanal miners against the dangers inherent in unprotected mining.

According to her, it is often difficult to train artisanal miners to adopt best mining practices due to their method of operation which is crude in nature.

“Irrespective of the great potentials of the mining sector at speeding the emerging economy of Nigeria, the negative environmental, social and health impacts have been underscored as significant drawbacks.

“It is a fact that geological formations do not respect political boundaries. This explains why the negative impacts of mining are widespread throughout Nigeria without ecological boundary.

“This geological setting such as in Ebonyi hosts a number of metallic and industrial minerals which in most cases occur in association with other heavy metals or elements,’’ she said.

The director general said that in the cause of mining and processing the minerals, associated elements were discarded and exposed to the environment which posed danger to health and the ecosystem.

According to her, the magnitude of environmental problems accentuated by artisanal mining is a key challenge to the federal government and this informed the establishment of NESREA.

Also speaking, the Ebonyi Commissioner for Environment, Dr Paul Okorie, represented by Rev. Gabriel Igwe-Ebi, said the state government was working toward achieving a sustainable environment.

“We will partner with NESREA and others to have a friendly environment that will be conducive to health,” he said.

In his remarks, the Chairman of Ebonyi assembly committee on environment, Mr Blaise Oji, said the workshop was to educate miners on the dangers of illegal mining to the ecosystem and human health.

“The workshop will enable the miners to understand the hazards of mineral elements to their health, hence the need for them to take precautions,’’ he said.

The 300 artisan miners who participated in the workshop were kited with safety wares to protect them in the course of their jobs.