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The Gezira Tomb of Pesticides El-Hasahiesa - Sudan

Abdelmageed O. Musa, Sawsan M. Elhassan, Asim A. Hussein

Introduction

The Gezira is the peninsula of fertile land between the Blue Nile and the White Nile (3.3 million feddan). It is backbone of Sudan’s agricultural land, mainly utilized for cotton cultivation. In recent decades the cotton crop has had many diseases; this has necessitated the import of pesticides and intensive use of different pesticides has been recorded.

Pesticides have been stored in 14 warehouse stores, with the headquarters at Gezira.. The central store is in the town of El-Hasahiesa, which lies 145 km south of Khartoum. During the 1980sh the yard of this store was full with a huge amount of expired and unused pesticides in drums and containers. As there was no provision for a scientific discharge system in the scheme for such pesticides, the Department of Crop Protection caused an environmental disaster in 1986 by dumping 500 tonnes of expired pesticides, mainly DDT, in the yard.
From that time on, this area has been known as “The Gezira Tomb of Pesticides”. The disaster was clearly evident during the floods of 1988. During this period, unusual signs and symptoms were recorded in the store area: unusual convulsions and deaths among children; abortions among pregnant women; atypical headaches; and others. Cattle and other animals died (25 cows died during one day). Deaths of frogs and other small animals were also observed (1).

Efforts have been made to control the situation. In 1989, the Plant Protection Department of the Gezira Scheme has constituted a national committee for discarding the remaining pesticide wastes contained in the store yard. The committee suggested two strategies for getting rid of expired pesticides: enclosing them in a highly scientifically designed store or burning these pesticides in suitable incinerators. The implementation of both strategies failed because of the high costs involved.

Alternatively another solution was tried. It consisted of surrounding and covering the tomb with a concrete wall that extends 150 cm under ground and 50 cm above ground, and then surrounding the store yard with a wall in order to control and prevent spilling that would pollute soil during rainy seasons (2).

Material and methods

A Participatory Rapid Appraisal method (3) was conducted by means of a multidisciplinary approach. It entailed individual interviews with the Gezira Scheme authority’s local physicians and public health personnel at El-Hassahiesa health facilities, group discussions with the community (formal and informal leaders, households; male and female members), use of secondary data (previous researches, studies, etc.), and direct observation (1).

Results

The following facts and findings were revealed:

1. Central pesticide stores lacked scientific design, were not stored and packed systematically, nor are unused or expired pesticides handled scientifically and systematically.

2. Huge amounts of internationally prohibited DDT pesticide have accumulated in the other stores.

3. The tomb is seriously cracked.

4. There is weak awareness of the problem at both community and fiscal levels.

5. Children are playing around the area. Sometimes they use small amounts of pesticides for fishing, collecting dead fishes.

6. Large quantities of pesticides in the yard are stored in more than 120 barrels that are badly corroded by heat and rains, and would need to be repacked.
7. The yard and surrounding soil (up to 400 metres) were highly polluted with these pesticides as a result of annual rain leaching these pesticides.
8. Usually rain water running from this area goes down directly to the Blue Nile River, which is about 1 km away from the store area.
9. There is a strong and repulsive smell in the whole area, which is surrounded by families’ complexes.
10. Surrounding communities show some signs which may be due to exposure to pesticides: allergies, running nose, excessive sweating, etc. In addition, annually during the rainy season, pesticide poisonings of children and animals are recorded, caused by exposure to polluted rain water.

Discussion and conclusion

Exposure to pesticides resulting from unsafe use or storage poses a potential threat to human health. The long-term consequences of this exposure may often go unidentified (4). While industrialized countries have been taking significant steps to reduce pesticide use, the use in developing countries is on the increase (5). The pesticide use and storage dilemma in Gezira agricultural scheme is a flagrant example.

Lack of awareness of the health hazards of pesticides among Crop Protection authorities and farmers coupled with the high expense of solutions for disposal resulted in the environmental disaster of dumping the pesticides in yard stores. A large number of population groups, particularly children, already have long-term exposure to pesticides, the ill effects of which need to be identified.

Scientific research is required without delay in order accurately to assess the situation and to suggest and implement an appropriate intervention to control the situation. The following aspects should be studied and urgently addressed:

1. proper correction and preventive construction of a tomb for the pesticides;
2. construction of new stores that waterproof and soil-proof;
3. formulation of a safe and cost-effective system of purchasing pesticides from abroad;
4. design and implementation of a widespread awareness campaign focusing on farmers, the community and the authorities;
5. encouraging research and innovations in order to discover new and better use of indigenous resources in sustainable agricultural production and for health maintenance (6).

References

1. Hanan A. Elamin. The impact of pesticides on the soil at El-Hasahiesa Area. (A thesis submitted for the degree of Master in Geography, University of Khartoum, 2001.
2. Issa A, et al. The Health Impact of Pesticides Spill from “Hasahiesa Tomb”on residents of the neighboring areas. The Sudanese Environmental Conservation Society, 1992.
3. Blacker F, Brown C. Alternative models to guide the design and implementation of the new information technologies. Journal of Occupational Psychology. 1986;59:267,313,594.
4. Alborg W. Public health impact of pesticides used in agriculture – WHO, Geneva 1990.
5. Wesseling C, Rupert C, Cherri F. Safe use of pesticides: A developing country’s point of view. In: Encyclopedia of Pest Management. 2003. P 1–14. Marcel Decker Inc.
6. Ngowi AVF. A study of farmers knowledge, attitude and experience in the use of pesticides in coffee farming. Afr Newslett on Occup Health and Safety, 2003;13(3):62–4.

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