Halt this trail of death, disease, and poverty

The latest plan to revive Pan Paper Mills in Webuye is a gift horse whose mouth area residents should examine. That the assets of the firm that gobbled up billions of taxpayers’ shillings have been sold to a timber merchant for a song — Sh900 million — after questionable bidding should worry every right-thinking Kenyan. But that is a story for another day.

Of urgent concern to the residents of Webuye is the likely return of death and disease due to water, soil, and air pollution.

For decades, the authorities have looked the other way as the hydrogen sulphide emitted by Pan Paper have corroded the lungs of residents and their corrugated iron roofs.

Local leaders’ calls for research to establish the extent of the damage the paper maker was causing to human, animal, and plant life fell on deaf ears. The matter was raised in Parliament in 1980, 1996, 2001, and 2006, but nothing happened until foreign environmental monitors stepped in.

In 2007, for instance, Global Community Monitor, a US-based pollution watchdog, led research into the air and water quality around Webuye town.

The results of the tests that were conducted in California confirmed residents’ worst fears: they were exposed to hydrogen sulphide 140 times the limit allowed by the World Health Organisation every day. Hourly exposure was 3,000 times higher. Tests on water samples revealed that Pan Paper released into River Nzoia effluent that far exceeded national water quality standards.

These hazards were linked to numerous health complications that affected residents including impotence, irritation of the eyes and respiratory tract infections, cancer of the lungs and throat, asthma, bronchitis, conjunctivitis, hepatitis, and dermatitis.

A separate research by Environmental Law Alliance Worldwide, Resource Conflict Institute, and University of Manchester established that an average of 15,850 patients suffered from respiratory diseases in Webuye and its environs every year.

Aquatic and land biodiversity was not spared either, with livestock and crop farming taking a serious hit. The researchers found that maize production had dwindled from 25 bags per acre in 1974, when Pan was commissioned, to an average of five in 2003 due to air pollution.

Some crops and trees such as cassava, mango, and cypress could not yield on the windward side of the factory, occasioning perennial hunger and poverty. Toxic discharge from the firm also killed thousands of fish and crocodiles in River Nzoia and Lake Victoria. Some species were wiped out completely.

This dangerous practice is bound to resume if nothing is done to protect the residents before Pan Paper’s chimneys start belching smoke laden with caustic chlorine, and sulphuric acid. The rush to reopen the factory in three months means that there will be no environment impact assessment or a most shoddy one will be done.

Another big concern is the decision to grant a private timber merchant the licence to harvest trees in government forests at subsidised prices “to make paper”.

Pan Paper’s forest conservation record is terrible as it clears forests without replanting.

The revival of Pan Paper should not mark the return of death, disease, and hunger to Webuye. These grave mistakes of the past should not be repeated. All Kenyans have a right to live in a clean and safe environment.

It is time for the National Environment Management Authority to rise to the occasion and redeem its image. It must establish how Pan Paper’s new owners will handle reforestation and waste disposal. Pan Paper should not be reopened until measures to prevent pollution and protect human, animal, and plant life are in place.

Mr Misiko is a Chevening Scholar at City University London. [email protected]. Twitter:@misikotwits.