Lukman Abdulmalik
Tassa, a once-thriving farming community in Dawakin Kudu Local Government Area, is now besieged by a growing number of sinkholes and land degradation triggered by extensive and largely unregulated sand mining activities.
In August 2024, an investigation by Stallion Times exposed how sinkholes pose a serious threat to residents of the Tassa community in Dawakin Kudu Local Government Area, Kano State.
In May 2025, the Kano State Government issued multiple warnings to individuals and companies, urging them to halt all illegal mining activities across the state.
Despite these warnings, unregulated sand mining continues to devastate the environment, disrupt the local economy, and affect daily life, particularly in Tassa community.
Today, the threat to the community and its environment has worsened.
The worsening situation prompted Stallion Times to follow up on the story.
On a fact-finding visit to Tassa on a fine Thursday morning, this reporter observed that as community members were busy going to their farmland, small businesses around the town, a large number of mini-trucks and tippers were also heading to the town to excavate sand.
Incidentally, the mining site and the town bear the same name, Tassa.
Just a few meters away, concerned residents stood by the roadside, prepared to block any truck or tipper transporting sand out of the town.
Curious about the situation, the reporter approached a familiar face, Abdulwahab Dantsoho, who had been interviewed during the initial investigative report on the same issue.
Dantsoho, a community activist, has been leading efforts to stop land degradation in Tassa.
He said, “It is almost 20 years of an unending crisis.
“I have raised this issue since the 2007 administration, but nothing has changed.
“We have lost our economic trees, the land has become infertile, and our waterways are contaminated.”
“What you are seeing now is the community fighting back,” Dantsoho lamented.
Now, out of frustration, residents have taken direct action, he pointed at the remains of a damaged truck.
“Two weeks ago, we blocked this same road that led to the mining site and stopped trailers from passing through our village.
“That led to a clash with the miners. The tension escalated, with community members accusing the government of neglecting their plight.
“I have been summoned and interrogated several times by security agencies, especially the Kano police command.
In most cases, the miners are the ones reporting me to the security agencies.
“I have never been detained, and I have been warned to stay out of the miners’ activities,” Dantsoho said.
Dantsoho also disclosed that the mining activities have led their children into substance abuse in the quest to work more or do overtime work at the site.
“The problem we have is that our leaders are encouraging sand mining. About a year ago, our village head, Sani Umar, was arrested for allegedly supplying drugs to the mining site.”
“The situation is getting out of hand as residents are now leaving their homes to settle in neighborhoods,” he added.
Our reporter tried to reach any constituted authority charged with the responsibility of enforcing the warnings of illegal mining in Tassa community, but none were available.
With no enforcement of government warnings, tensions between the community and miners are escalating and could spark broader unrest.
Condition of Residents
When Stallion Times visited the community for the first time in August 2024, Yahaya Hussaini, 46, a resident of Tassa community, decried that his well, which has been providing water for his neighbors for the past 20 years, had sunk.
A return visit to the residence of Hussaini in June showed that his family is at the mercy of neighbours whose well still provides, and sometimes the pipe-borne water supply from the Tamburawa water treatment plant, which is not constant.
Presently, Hussaini lives in constant fear as his house is on the verge of collapse, though he is contemplating relocating to escape the potential disaster waiting to happen.
During the visit in 2024, Talatu Abdulrahaman, 74, mother of 5 and an economic tree farmer at Tassa, also lost 6 of her mango trees.
Today, Talatu lost 3 acres of farmland as a result of depleted soil nutrients. All her mango trees were gradually cut down and used as firewood for both domestic and commercial use.
Also, Muhammad Khamis Garba, a renowned farmer of tomatoes, pepper, and mangoes, lost all eight of his mango trees due to water scarcity caused by sand mining.
According to him, the Mango trees stopped producing fruit, so he eventually cut them down for firewood.
Stallion Times observed that many houses are now on the brink of collapse due to unstable ground caused by excavation.
Despite growing tensions and environmental concerns over sand mining in Tassa town, the state government has recently stepped up efforts to attract foreign investors to its mining sector through the Ministry of Solid Minerals and Natural Resources.
Meanwhile, residents of the affected areas in Tassa continue to raise alarms over the severe impact of unregulated sand mining, which they say has caused widespread environmental degradation, threatening farmlands and water sources.
The people of Tassa, worn down by years of inaction, say they have no choice but to defend their land even if it means taking the law into their own hands.
If unattended, the sinkhole crisis in Tassa, too, could escalate into a disaster far beyond eroded farmland, a collapse of the earth, and trust in government.
The government’s response may determine whether the community’s farms, homes, and hopes can be saved.
