DR Congo workers for Feronia made impotent by pesticides - HRW

25 November 2019

Workers exposed to pesticides at a UK-funded company in the Democratic Republic of Congo have actually experienced ending up being impotent, a rights group has stated.

Feronia, which controls DR Congo's palm-oil sector, had actually stopped working to give employees adequate protective equipment, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said.

The UK federal government's advancement bank, CDC, owns 38% of Feronia in DR Congo.

It stated Feronia had invested greatly in protective devices and all workers were required to use it.
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Feronia, a Canadian-based company, said it was dedicated to operating to worldwide requirements.
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The company included that it had spent $360,000 (₤ 280,000) on individual protective equipment in the last three years, which workers had been trained to use, and it had actually implemented a policy requiring the equipment to be used in the work environment.
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Feronia and its regional subsidiary, Plantations et Huileries du Congo (PHC), employ thousands of employees at palm oil plantations in DR Congo.

PHC has received countless dollars from the development banks of Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands and the UK.

"These banks can play an important role promoting development, but they are undermining their mission by stopping working to ensure the business they finance appreciates the rights of its workers and neighborhoods on the plantations," HRW scientist Luciana Téllez-Chávez stated.
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What is HRW's evidence?
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In a report entitled A Poisonous Mix of Abuses on Congo's Oil Palm Plantations, external, HRW said it had actually interviewed more than 40 workers and two-thirds of them "informed us that they had actually ended up being impotent since they started the job".

Impotence - together with shortness of breath, headaches, and weight-loss that the workers complained about - were health issues "constant with direct exposure to pesticides in general, as described in clinical literature", HRW stated.
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"Many [likewise] struggled with skin inflammation, itchiness, blisters, eye problems, or blurred vision - all signs that follow what clinical texts and the products' labels describe as health repercussions of direct exposure to these pesticides," the rights group added.

Ms Téllez-Chávez said workers who had actually been talked to had permeable cotton overalls - not the water resistant overalls.

"If pesticides unintentionally spilled, the hazardous liquid would likely touch their skin," she added.
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What else does HRW state?

At the Yaligimba plantation, the company dumped the waste from its palm oil mill next to workers' homes.

The effluents formed a "foul-smelling stream", and eventually streamed into a natural pond where ladies and kids shower and wash cooking utensils.

"Residents of a town of a number of hundred individuals downstream told us the river was their only source of drinking water," Ms Téllez-Chávez stated.

If uncontrolled and untreated, effluent-dumping could eventually likewise trigger fish to suffocate and die, or cause large developments of algae that might adversely impact the health of people who entered contact with contaminated water or taken in tainted fish, HRW included.

The rights group also implicated Feronia of paying "severe hardship" earnings, stating women were the lowest-paid, with some earning as little as $7.30 a month gathering fruit.

HRW stated the advancement banks need to ensure business they purchase pay living salaries to their employees.
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What is the UK advancement bank's action?

In a statement, CDC said: "Palm Oil Mill Effluent (POME) is an organic mix of natural waste oils and fats and has actually been discharged into rivers because the plantation entered into being in 1911 and does not threaten human health.

"A treatment plant for POME represents a multimillion dollar financial investment - money that the business has selected rather to spend on real estate, tidy water provision, health care and academic facilities for employees, their families and other members of the local neighborhoods.
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"It is the objective of the business to develop treatment plants for POME, however is regrettably not in a financial position to do so presently as it continues to make heavy losses.
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"In addition, the business has reconditioned or dug 72 brand-new boreholes for the arrangement of clean water in the last 6 years."

What does Feronia say?

The company stated working conditions had actually improved considerably considering that the involvement of the European banks in 2013.

Employees were now paid substantially more than the base pay for farming in DR Congo and the average worker made $3.30 daily - higher than what a regional teacher would earn, it stated.

It also confirmed that it had invested considerably in access to safe drinking water.

"Feronia runs on a social mandate with local communities. Without their assistance we would not have the ability to function. We that there is still a good deal to be done and are dedicated to operating to international requirements. We will continue to work relentlessly to attain these goals," the company included a statement.
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