By Lukman Abdulmalik
For over 15 years, residents of Tassa village in Dawakin Kudu Local Government Area, Local Government Area in Kano, have been battling with activities of dredging and excavation resulting to degradation and, soil contamination, deforestation, coastal erosion, property damage, loss of aquatic biodiversity, ecological destabilization, and sinkholes.
Sinkhole is a situation where a hole is usually caused by the draining of water in the ground or under a particular earth surface to cause the collapse or sinking of buildings on the surface layer.
Between 2011 and 2024, there are more than 50 sinkholes due to sand mining.
The sand miners are busy conducting their activities without regulation about three kilometers away from the settlement of the villagers, causing a huge impact of sinkholes.
In this investigation, Lukman Abdulmalik exposes how the impact of sand mining is causing deforestation, loss of economic trees, and the threat to over 50 houses.
Tassa village is rich in farming crops such as rice, millet, corn, cowpea, tomatoes and pepper; it is also blessed with fine sand that has attracted exploration by firms, individuals, and certain government agencies.
All of the aforementioned natural resources are facing threats from mining activities that is ongoing. And it is causing an increasing number of sinkholes in the village.
In a day, over 1,000 heavy duty trucks evacuate sand from this small community.
A heavy duty trucks Evacuating Sand in Tassa
According to a certified true copy document obtained from the Nigeria Mining Cadastre Office (MCO) Abuja on 6 August 2023, there are at least 96 valid sand mining titles in Kano and 51 were granted permission to operate.
Out of these 51 valid sand mining tiles, 21 are in and around Dawakin Kudu Local government Area (a true census of the titles in Tassa could not be obtained), their operations are randomly carried out in communities where there is huge availability of sand.
Document obtained from Nigeria Mining Cadastre Office, Abuja.
Other communities in Dawakin Kudu suffering from sinkholes are Yanciyawa, Kwari, Page, Gam, Dantube, and Gadar Tamburawa.
In Tassa, bush paths leading to farms, roads in and about the town are sinking, in other cases, where the holes are large, residents convert them to waste disposal sites; walls and houses too are sinking.
Sinkholes turned to a disposal site. PC: Stallion Times
Stallion Times discovered that at least 50 houses in the Tassa have suffered sinkholes, and the impact is still being felt as other houses are on the verge of collapse.
The huge digging through removal of soil layers, causing the soaking away of water from river Tamburawa has left the residents in man-made natural disaster.
Yahaya Hussaini, 46, resident of Tassa community decried that his well which has been providing water for his neighbors in the past 20 years has sunk.
“This sand mining has become a threat to my well, about 8 years ago the water in the well started decreasing and having an unpleasant taste.
“We continued using it, but as of now that I am speaking, the water has dried up while the well has sunk.”
Stallion Times noticed that Hussaini has filled two of his deep wells that is a source of drinking water because they are sinking.
Yahaya Hussaini standing close to his sinkhole filled with trash. PC: Stallion Times
He asserted that “I filled my wells because when the water dried up, almost every mid-night around 12am I usually heard the sound of something cracking down.
“I discovered it was my wells that were sinking, so I decided to fill them up to protect my house from falling apart.
“Currently I have to walk about 1 kilometer to fetch water as a result of no well in my house.”
Barrister Habibullahi Muhammad, the poultry owner and farmer’s association spokesperson in the community recalled how the horrible sinkholes started in the village.
He explained that there were two major minners in Tassa; Yammawa & Sons Nigeria Limited and Sani Musa Tamburawa.
“Previously it was CCECC, a Chinese company that started the sand mining activities in 2019, but when they releaized that the impact of their activity could lead to litigation, they evacuated the site.
“Yammawa & Sons Nigeria Limited and Sani Musa Tamburawa took over the mining site and continued.”
Muhammad asserted that the Kano State Government constituted another committee in 2022 to end sand mining but later discovered that most of the members in the committee are major sand miners in Tassa.
In a chat with Abdulwahab Dantsoho, 52, a Tassa citizen and head of farmers who has worked tirelessly to put an end to sand mining in the village revealed that the wells in two of his houses are currently dried-up.
According to Dantsoho residents of Tassa village are estimated to be over 3,000 people (There are no official figures, data or documents to confirm the figure), who are at threat to sinkholes.
“I dug my wells 17 years ago, which has been beneficial to my neighbors, using it for cooking, washing and others.
“About 10 years ago, when the sand mining activities started, I noticed that the water in the wells began to drain.
Sinkhole in Abdulwahab Dantsoho’s residence. PC: Stallion Times
“So I decided to called well diggers to dig the well deeper into the earth, despite that the water keeps reducing in quantity.
“As I am talking now, none of my wells have a drop of water, we have speak to relevant government bodies but no action is taken as we have over 50 sinkholes recorded in Tassa.
“This continuous sand mining is causing us a lot, spoiling our farm products, contaminating our reserved water, killing our fishing business and many others.”
Sinkholes Causing Deforestation in Tassa
A visit to different Tassa farming sites, Stallion Times observed that the effect of sand mining and sinkholes has caused severe environmental damage such as erosion and sedimentation.
The contamination of the only river in the community also affects aquatic organisms, farmlands, and economic trees.
Dead trees cut-down. PC: Stallion Times
The reduction in water quality and quantity also affects agricultural activities and the people of the that rely on water resources.
Muhammad Khamis Garba, a renowned tomatoes, paper and mango farmer, was highlighted to have lost all his mango trees due to lack of water caused by the sand mining activities.
His 8 mango trees are currently cut-down. He cannot merchant fruits anymore.
“Before the sand mining activity, I normally sold about 27 baskets of mangoes for between N150,000 and N200,000.
Muhammad Khamis Garba in his farmland. PC: Stallion Times
“For the past 3 years none of the mango trees produces fruit, as a result of that I cut them down for firewood usage in my home.”
Stallion Times also observed that most of the trees in Tassa are now snagged with dried leaves, broken roots, sloughing bark, tree leaning, and flaking due to a lack of sufficient nutrients from the soil.
Talatu Abdulrahaman, 74, mother of 5 and also an economic tree farmer at Tassa, also loss 6 of her mango trees.
The mangoes have been her major source of income which she caters to her family and relatives.
Talatu Abdulrahaman. PC: Stallion Times
“This sand mining has caused me a lot of disaster, my well has sunk down and now my trees are gone.
“In 2023, I have no option but to cut-down the some trees and use them as firewood because they can no longer produce fruit.
“Those mango trees have helped me to solve so many of my financial problems; it is with the proceeds that I gave my two daughters out in marriage.
“But now both the mangoes and other tress are not bearing fruits well in our community.
Responding to the plight of the residents, the Executive Secretary Kano Watershed, Erosion and Climate Change Management Agency (KN-WECCMA), Dr. Muhammad S. Khalil, under the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change noted that the government is aware of the sand mining activities in the state especially in Dawakin Kudu, Madobi and other places across the 44 LGAs, as sand mining is a regulated activity.
He asserted that “we are developing a climate change policy for the state which has captured issues of land degradation and related matters in order to safeguard the people and the environment, especially farmlands in the affected communities.
“For sinkhole awareness, probably yes, as sinkholes are a visible consequence of sand mining, we have carried out sensitization across the 44 LGAs in the state and we are planning to do more across CSOs and MDAs before the implementation of the proposed Policy.
“We have the mandate to deal with any issues concerning climate change and social degradation in the state, so we will continue to propose mitigation measures to minimize sinkholes and environmental impact.
Environmental Impact of Sinkhole
Globally, there are hundreds of sinkholes that were formed around the world with different lengths, widths, and depths.
In an interview Kabiru Hassan, an environmental Analyst in Bayero University Kano, highlighted that sinkholes threaten water supplies by draining unfiltered water from streams, lakes and wetlands directly into aquifers.
He asserted that most sinkholes in Nigeria are man-made which mostly occur through sand mining.
“Sinkholes can cause structural damage and instability under buildings, roads and bridges, causing structural cracks in walls and floors.
“It could also lead to death or injury when the ground beneath gives way during a sinkhole’s collapse.
“To avoid the continuous occurrence of sinkholes, sand mining must be banned mostly in areas that are now close to residents.”
“To manage sand resources, the sand must be formalized as a “strategic resource at all levels of government and society”, while ecosystems degraded by sand mining activities must be restored.
“Sinkholes can contribute to climate change as the process of sand mining releases large amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, which contributes to global warming.
“The loss of vegetation due to sinkholes can reduce the capacity of natural ecosystems to absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.”
Today, Dantsoho’s house may collapse into sinkhole (causing avoidable loss of lives and properties) if the mining activities continue without regulation.
Talatu and other residents are left to grapple with high economic losses, which with time can lead to a high rate of destitution in Tassa community and in Kano at large.
This publication was supported by the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism (WSCIJ) through Stallion Times under the Collaborative Media Engagement for Development Inclusivity and Accountability Project (CMEDIA) funded by the MacArthur Foundation.
