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DR Congo workers for Feronia made impotent by pesticides - HRW
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25 November 2019
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Workers exposed to pesticides at a UK-funded firm in the Democratic Republic of Congo have suffered becoming impotent, a rights group has actually said.

Feronia, which dominates DR Congo's palm-oil sector, had failed to provide employees adequate protective equipment, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said.
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The UK government's development bank, CDC, owns 38% of Feronia in DR Congo.

It stated Feronia had invested greatly in protective equipment and all were needed to wear it.

Feronia, a Canadian-based company, said it was committed to running to worldwide standards.

The company included that it had spent $360,000 (₤ 280,000) on individual protective devices in the last 3 years, which employees had been trained to utilize, and it had actually implemented a policy needing the equipment to be worn in the work environment.

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Feronia and its local subsidiary, Plantations et Huileries du Congo (PHC), utilize thousands of employees at palm oil plantations in DR Congo.

PHC has gotten millions of dollars from the advancement banks of Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands and the UK.

"These banks can play a crucial role promoting development, but they are sabotaging their objective by stopping working to guarantee the business they fund respects the rights of its employees and neighborhoods on the plantations," HRW researcher Luciana Téllez-Chávez said.

What is HRW's proof?
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In a report entitled A Toxic Mix of Abuses on Congo's Oil Palm Plantations, external, HRW said it had actually spoken with more than 40 workers and two-thirds of them "told us that they had become impotent considering that they started the job".

Impotence - together with shortness of breath, headaches, and weight loss that the employees complained about - were health issue "consistent with exposure to pesticides in general, as described in scientific literature", HRW said.

"Many [also] struggled with skin inflammation, itchiness, blisters, eye issues, or blurred vision - all signs that follow what clinical texts and the items' labels explain as health consequences of exposure to these pesticides," the rights group added.

Ms Téllez-Chávez said workers who had been interviewed had permeable cotton overalls - not the waterproof overalls.

"If pesticides mistakenly spilled, the harmful liquid would likely touch their skin," she added.

What else does HRW say?

At the Yaligimba plantation, the business disposed the waste from its palm oil mill next to employees' homes.

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

"Residents of a town of numerous hundred people downstream informed us the river was their only source of drinking water," Ms Téllez-Chávez said.

If uncontrolled and without treatment, effluent-dumping could ultimately also trigger fish to suffocate and die, or trigger big growths of algae that might negatively affect the health of people who entered into contact with contaminated water or taken in tainted fish, HRW included.

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

HRW said the development banks must guarantee business they buy pay living incomes to their employees.

What is the UK advancement bank's reaction?

In a declaration, CDC stated: "Palm Oil Mill Effluent (POME) is a natural mix of natural waste oils and fats and has 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 instead to invest on real estate, clean water provision, healthcare and academic facilities for staff members, their families and other members of the regional neighborhoods.
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"It is the goal of the company to develop treatment plants for POME, however is regrettably not in a monetary position to do so currently as it continues to make heavy losses.

"In addition, the business has actually refurbished or dug 72 brand-new boreholes for the arrangement of tidy water in the last six years."

What does Feronia state?

The business said working conditions had improved considerably since the involvement of the European banks in 2013.

Employees were now paid considerably more than the minimum wage for agriculture in DR Congo and the average worker earned $3.30 daily - higher than what a regional teacher would make, it said.

It also verified that it had invested significantly in access to safe drinking water.
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"Feronia operates on a social mandate with regional communities. Without their assistance we would not be able to work. We acknowledge that there is still a good deal to be done and are dedicated to operating to international standards. We will continue to work tirelessly to accomplish these goals," the business added in a statement.
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