Impacts of Local Gold Mining on Drinking Water Quality in Zamfara State, Nigeria

Water has much broader influences on health and wellbeing and issues such as the quantity and quality of the water are important in determining the health of individuals and whole communities (WHO, 2004). Water pollution caused either by anthropogenic activities such as mining or natural processes, is a significant problem in several countries in the world. According to Tay and Momade (1999), most of the mining activities in Ghana have over the years, impacted on water resources within the belt through inadequate management of tailings and effluents from processing plants. These water sources (rivers and streams) had served as sources of drinking water for the communities, but had since been declared unsafe and users advised to stay away. Noel (2003) reported lead poisoning at Lower Klity village in eastern Thailand where several Karen ethnic villagers (mostly children) died from lead contamination while many dozens of people particularly women and children suffered from acute lead poisoning from drinking, fishing and washing in the Klity stream near the village. Nearly 100 cattle have died and the villagers could not drink from the stream because it made them sick. In Tanzania, for example, 78% of water samples analysed in the Lake Victoria goldfields contained mercury in concentrations significantly above the drinking water standard (Mpendazoe, 1996). The presence of trace metals in rivers in small-scale mining areas in Tanzania is a threat to both the environment and to human health. The Mozoe, Luenha, Revue and Zambezi rivers flow through Mozambique to the India Ocean, from Zimbabwe, Zambia and Malawi, where the use of mercury is a common practice, and contributes to water contamination downstream (RT1 ITDG, 2001). Earthworks (2004) stated that gold and precious metals mining can come at expense of communities and the environment. Long term effects include acid mine drainage, regular disposal of toxic waste such as cyanide used in leaching gold from ore and mercury used to purify gold and/or soupy semi-solid mine waste (tailing) on water resources.