Ebonyi State Workers Stay on Job Despite Illness, Point to Economic Hardship

Lives of workers in Ebonyi rice mill are daily being threatened by the growing hazardous conditions of their working environments, findings by Pecohub have revealed.

It was gathered that thousands of these workers operate often without adequate protective equipment or access to healthcare, thus exposing them more to health challenges, prominent among them is respiratory and sight diseases.

At the Abakaliki rice mill clusters, one of the largest in Nigeria, labourers, many of whom are women, work in environments thick with rice husk dust and machine emissions.

Workers report persistent cough, chest pain, headaches, eye pains and breathing difficulties linked to daily exposure.

Notwithstanding, Pecohub investigation revealed that these workers have refused to quit the risky job. According to them, there is no better alternative for them and that leaving the labour would mean allowing their families to starve.

Health reviews further show that rice mill workers commonly suffer from respiratory disorders, conjunctivitis, skin allergies and musculoskeletal pain due to repetitive tasks and long working hours.

Despite these risks, the absence of functional healthcare facilities within the areas has left workers with limited options for treatment, forcing many to continue working while ill.

Affected workers are calling for urgent intervention, including provision and enforcement of PPE usage, regular health screenings for workers,establishment of functional health centres near work clusters, increased public health education on occupational hazards.

Appealing for opportunities of skills acquisition in order to be self reliant, the women attributed their choice of working as unpaid labourers at the mill for few abandoned grains of rice to poverty.

They called for the intervention of governments, coporate bodies, philanthropists and well meaning individuals, adding that some of them already acquired skills like hair dressing, tailoring and catering, but couldn’t start up the businesses because of lack of capital.

They accused the management of the rice mill, led by Mr Linus Obeji of not giving them any payments, incentives and safety kits, despite the hazards they encountered while rendering free evacuating services to them all round the year.

Some of them shared their ordeals recently. A widow, Mrs Regina Ijaga said, “I have been in this rice dust work for 15 years. It causes body pains to me and I don’t know the work to do to avoid this work. I get rice from these chaff after winnowing it. So, despite the impending health challenges, I am assured of food for my children at the end of work every day.

“I lost my husband 15 years ago and nobody cares for me and my children. This is why I do this work for survival and each time I do it, I have waist pains, headache and breathing issues but God has continued to protect me.

I have never bought the adequate drugs for the treatment of this issues I usually have because I don’t have money for it, I don’t.

Jacinta Odom, another female worker revealed, “A whole lot of people who work in this rice mill inhale this dust and the smoke from the machine. This rice dust sieving work is very dangerous for our health, it affects our health lot. I have been having issues since I started this job. I have cough, persistent cough, waist pains, headache and other issues.

“We need help, we are not suppose to be doing this work because of its health implications but we don’t have anyone who cares for us; we don’t have hope, we don’t have work. Our only means of survival is this rice dust work and we can’t leave it because we have no alternative. We are suffering and hunger is dealing with us seriously and that’s why we are doing this work because we don’t want to steal.”

Calling for government’s interventions, she said, “Government should build hospital here where we can be checking our health and treat the diseases we contract here. We also need safety kits.”

Another worker, Nkechi Igboji, stated,
“Yes, there are diseases in this rice dust work but what can we do? Should we steal? We are in this work because we don’t know what to do, we don’t have any alternative to it.

I have had serious health issues in this work, I have been having frequent headaches, body and chest pains and if I complain, I will be told that the rice mill dust work is the cause and I should stop it. But if I stop, who will carter for me and my children, who will train them?

If government or any philanthropist supports me with capital, I can start business and leave the dusty environment.”

One of the affected women, Mrs Chimaobi Nkwegu, a mother of six, who has sewing skills, called on government and non-governmental organisations to help her with a sewing machine to enable her to be financially independent.

She said some of them were already losing their sights and experiencing other health hazards, owing to continuous exposure to husk dust.

“Almost all of us working here suffer one eye problem or the other because of the husk dust that enters our eyes daily. That is why you see us looking like masquerades,” she added.

Another woman, Mrs Evelyn Odo, a 40 year-old mother of three, pleaded for N60,000 business capital to be self reliant

Okafor Onu ,”This rice milling business affects my health seriously. Each day, I have cough, serious cough after the work and that’s why some of us don’t stay here all the time because both the rice dust and smokes from the milling machine are very dangerous for health.”