Senegal urged to clean toxic Dakar area after deaths

By Ingrid Melander

THIAROYE SUR MER, Senegal (Reuters) - The World Health Organization urged Senegal on Tuesday to decontaminate a suburb where nearly 1,000 residents remain exposed to high concentrations of brain-damaging lead after 18 children died.

International health and environmental experts carried out an investigation last week in the NGagne Diaw quarter of Thiaroye sur Mer, where authorities banned a local industry recycling lead batteries in March over health concerns.

"Many children are showing evidence of neurological damage. Environmental investigations have found very high concentrations of lead both outside and inside people's homes," the WHO said in a statement issued at its headquarters in Geneva.

Some 950 people in the poor area are "continuously exposed through ingestion and inhalation of lead-contaminated dust," it said. "Thorough decontamination of the affected area of NGagne Diaw, including the insides of homes, is a high priority."

In Thiaroye's sandy, litter-strewn alleyways, local people said recycling lead had been a way to survive Senegal's poverty.

"I was doing it because I had no job, I didn't have a choice. If it hadn't been forbidden I would still be doing it," said Seynabou Mbengue, 44, as she showed a bag containing recycled lead. She said the work never made her ill.

Nearby a battery lay half-submerged in a waterlogged ditch.

Demba Diaw, a teacher in a Koranic school, said his only child, a daughter, died aged 4 from lead poisoning. He and other grieving parents campaigned to end recycling in the area.