This Saturday, March 25, 2023, a mission from the Collective of Civil Society Actors from Agadez met with the populations of the commune of Dannat. Objective ! Make them aware of the consequences of uranium mining and especially its impact on the environment. “By sensitizing traditional leaders, women’s associations and those of young people, we hope for a collective awareness,” says Mr. Alassan, president of the said Collective.
This highly civic-minded approach comes following the resounding lawsuit brought by civil society in Agadez once morest the Société des mines de Dasa (SOMIDA), and also follows the cry of alarm launched last January by the Commission for Research and Information on radioactivity (Criirad), which declared that the waste from Cominak, an Orano subsidiary, estimated at more than 20 million tonnes of radioactive sludge, endangered the environment of the site but also the groundwater supplying the city of Arlit.
These direct exchanges with the population, which the actors of the NGO Aghir’man de Almoustapha Alhacen have been doing for a few years now, are important for raising awareness among the populations who are mostly pastoralists.
“To be silent is to be complicit in what is happening on our lands. What these companies are doing has no human face but they pride themselves on the badge of impunity which has been graciously offered to them by the Nigerian politician”, indignantly another actor from civil society.
And the latter to explain that the only exploitation process that these companies use destroys the aquifer and the environment. it is a question of injecting into the ore, through a conduit, alkaline solutions, such as those prepared from sodium hydrogencarbonate, or else acid solutions. The uranium is then separated from the ore underground, then the resulting solution is pumped to the surface, where the uranium is recovered. Before long, no human, animal or environmental life will be possible in our region”.
Note that the choice of the municipality of Dannat is not fortuitous because not far from there is the mine of Imouraren which intends to resume its activities using a process of exploitation which involves risks.
Concerned regarding the preservation of human life and the survival of the environment for current and future generations, the Agadez Civil Society Collective promises to continue the battle on all fronts: legal and community.
Karim Anicet
