A WARNING! This episode contains uncomfortable sounds

Sound of rock blast

Imagine waking up to that sound every day.

Temitope (resident): eni ti won ba ti se okuta yen ni lo ju e ri, o ma ni shock.

Narrator: That is Temitope. a resident at Igare community. She says the blast is always jarring, especially the first time.

[rock blast]

Narrator: That’s the deafening sound residents at Igare land, a community in Ogun state, endure every time Zhong Tai Mining Nigeria Limited blast rocks.

Zhong Tai is a Chinese company that extracts, manages and processes rocks from the earth surface. It opened in the community in 2014.

Emeka (resident): Anytime they are blasting there, the light will switch off. The stone wey dey blast there just come straight kpa kpa kpa sound of blasting

Iyaafin alimi (resident): (in yoruba) se eri gbogbo enu ona ile wa yen, o ma se gbishhhh

Abosede (resident): (in yoruba) se e ri awon igo ti mo ko soke, won ma shake. you see all these bottles that are

(sound of blasting)

Madam alice: (in yoruba) o ti na nkan je o. ile wa to wa legbe loun yen, won ti mo kini si legbe. time ti won yan ni le yen la bayi ti won wa fi kini yen si.

Narrator: Those are voices from Igare residents all sharing their experiences anytime Zhong Tai starts blasting. They have cracked walls and fallen roofs as evidence of the massive vibration.

This is Kara House, an investigative podcast that sheds light on issues affecting you and me.

This story is from Precious Akintulubo and you’re listening to noise from Zhong Tai.

Narrator: Nigeria is blessed with various resources the country relies on for revenue to meet the numerous needs of its more than 200 million population. Ogun state, in Southwest Nigeria, is known for its rocks and hills. sound of rock climbers…

This natural resource is a valuable material in the construction industry. For it to be useful, it has to be broken down into sizable and fine bits.

solemn sound

Feranmi (resident): As I was sleeping, the whole house shook. I had to run out of my room because it was so scary. I even thought it was an earthquake.

Narrator: That is Feranmi Precious, a student of Olabisi Onabanjo University.

Okeinugbo is a 40-minute motorbike ride from the university. Feranmi’s first experience of the blast woke her from a deep afternoon sleep. It led to a deep shock.

Feranmi (resident): Some people said it is the process of breaking rocks around that Ago area. It has happened twice now. The first time, I was so scared because the whole house shook.

Narrator: It’s even more serious for those who live closer to the quarry. Precious visited Igare community, the location of the quarry, to speak with residents.

ambience of the motorbike

Narrator: Igare community is peaceful and quiet when Zhong Tai is not blasting rocks. You can hear the birds chirp…

Toddlers playing in open courtyards. Older kids, full of energy, are not left out. They are playing football at the village square filled with low grasses.

The ancient town is surrounded by nature with mud and brick houses providing shelter for its residents. vehicles and motorcycles are a rare sight…partly because the road is not motorable.

Precious met Iyaafin Alimi at her store, a minimart where she sells groceries.

She’s lived in the community for three years but still gets thrown every time there is a blast. ]

Iyaafin Alimi: (in yoruba) ojo yen na, although na, won ma an ta siren won ti won ma an tan yen o. ti won ba ti tan yen a ma mo wipe o da an pe won fe blast.

Narrator: She says Zhong Tai has a warning system – a piercing sound- that alerts residents when blasting is about to start. When the warning sound starts, you abandon everything else and run for safety.

Iyaafin alimi: Ojo temi wan so yen, o da n pe mi o notice. mi o fokan si siren yen. bi mo se gbo sound yen to dun, ile nle yen ma vibrate. mo kan sa sita ni. mo ti wa de enu ona ita ni mo wa wope ah, awon people yi ni.

Narrator: She woke up shaking and disoriented. Other residents in the community have similar experiences.

Emeka resident: (in pidgin) I personally myself, I have a geepee tank for down there. They are breaking the geepee tank there. The stone wey they blast there, e just come straight pa pa pa.

Abosede (resident): (in yoruba) ti eba de awon ile imi, a ma an discover pe ti won ba blast beyen, o ma an ara ogiri to je pe ara ogiri yen ma la, o ma san.

Narrator: The first voice you heard in pidgin is Emeka. The second voice is Abosede. She says the effects of this blast is apparent on houses in the community. The environmental effect of this activity is severe. Precious looked around myself and all she can see is different rock crusts at every part of the community. This shows how far the stones go into the town. The road to the community is also damaged due to the heavy duty trucks going in and out of the quarry center. The walls and ceilings of the houses close to the quarry are also patched to mask the damages caused by bricks that land on them during the rock blasting process.

Residents who live close to the quarries where these rocks are blasted endure great inconvenience and sometimes health implications like silicosis, a lung disease caused by breathing in tiny bits of common minerals found in rock and soil. Aside from silicosis other health implications include: headache and related heart issues.

Precious spoke with Professor Yelwa Sadiq Abdullahi, a professor of Environmental Geography, to better understand what danger there is for residents of Igare community

Prof Yelwa: all of these are all chemical ingredients which can affect human beings, even animals.

Precious asked him if the community residents are exposed to health hazards?

Prof Yelwa: Oh yes. You see, particularly after the rainfall, if they have a river and streams around and maybe the source of their water and they continue to consume, there will be a lot of problems for them. If you take the water samples from where they collect their water most particularly from drinking and cooking, if you test them, you will find out that a lot of chemicals are in there.

Zhong Tai made promises to the community when it started operations.

Community leader: It is true that we the community give them the allocation but it is the government that gave them the license…

Narrator: That’s chief Alimi Tajudeen, the traditional ruler in Igare community.

Chief Alimi: About the road, we can say that we are enjoying it a little because they are not doing it according to our wishes. In our agreement, we say that they must do it to be motorable from ago-iwoye down to ijebu-ode. They begged us to let them do it from ago-iwoye to quarry here and then we agreed with them but they could not cope with their agreement. if you look at the situation on the road, it is too rough.

Narrator: he said the agreements between the community and Zhong Tai includes youth employment, repairing damages caused by the rocks amongst others but the company refuses to rebuild a community house they met on the land. Some other agreements include provision of borehole, constant light, supplies of gravel, monetary benefits and more. Going back to Chief Alimi, since Zhong Tai failed to meet up with all, the community took Zhong Tai to court but the community lost in court.

Baale: Our uneducated leaders who don’t understand well won’t put their educated children to it. Instead of the community preparing and releasing our suggestion at court, Zhong Tai lawyer tends to beat us to it. This means that when we go to court, it is only their paper that gets to court.

Zhong Tai submits its report, ruling the community out of a fair judgment which doesn’t suit Igare community’s agreement.

The community leaders now have to wait for the expiration of the current contract with Zhong Tai so they can work on a new agreement that benefits them more.

Narrator: Precious put all these allegations to Zhong Tai Nigeria Limited. She spoke with one of the supervisors from the quarry. He said his name is Eke.

Eke:since there is no problem, they have discussed amicably, they have agreed on terms. So there is no violation. So there is peace.

Narrator: But that’s not what the community members think. The leaders think they have been cheated out of fair compensation for the noise and health hazard they are exposed to. What can a community pitched against a big corporation do? They look up to their government for help.

Baale: In this area here, the government is not seeing to our development.

That’s Chief Alimi

Baale: This is a big punishment for us. We are begging the government to please support us. (silence)

Narrator: You have just listened to ‘Noise from Zhong Tai’, kara house’s original documentary. The story was reported and produced by Precious Akuntulubo. Sound mixing was done by Daniel

Akinbusoye. It was edited by Tolu Olasoji and Banjo Damilola. The voice is Nabilah Usman.