Cleaning the Chemical Past
Addis Fortune, Ethiopia - September 25, 2007
Seka Chekors is not too different from many other similar towns as it struggles to pull itself out of the poverty that grips much of one of the poorest nations on the planet. One additional challenge to the town's residents that puts it in a unique category of towns is resurfacing after being relegated to bad memories for many old enough to recall.
One of the 230 districts within Jimma Zone in the Oromia Regional State, the township Seka Chekors is Located 347Km southwest of Addis Abeba. Twenty-thousand people inhabit this rural town 20Km along the main road from Jimma township.
Springtime in 1991 not only brought the normal belg rains but also the overthrow of the Derg military regime in power since 1974 and installation of the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Forces (EPRDF). The ensuing power vacuum rendered government facilities vulnerable to looting and general insecurity of property.
In Seka a number of the residents stormed the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MoARD) warehouses removing whatever their hands and shoulders could bear.
Ibrahim Abageno, a 50-year-old resident of Seka and father of three who earns a living growing chat and corn as well as cattle ranching, vividly recalled what went wrong back then.
"The change in government left the warehouse unguarded," Ibrahim told Fortune.
Some of the materials were a rather nefarious bounty and turned out to be more of a curse than a treasure ...