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West Africa: Still a Dumping Site

By on December 3, 2010
basel_cIn the late 80s, a series of scandals revealed by the local press and relayed by the international media put a harsh light on the consideration that the Western world was reserving Africa: the continent has become the garbage of the rich world. As Europe embraced ecology standards, its chemical residues, hospital waste and other toxic material found their destination, landing in West Africa and other sub-regions, indeed with the consent of local intermediaries. But once the good souls realized the danger posed with all the tens of millions of tons of heavy metals, acids, solvents, cyanide and pesticides; then the Basel Convention was born, followed by other treaties such as the one for Africa, born in Bamako.

The European Union, as well as the 168 other nations have since ratified the Basel Convention, but unfortunately, some continue to violate the international law and as explained in 2006 by the European Commissioner, Stavros Dimas, about the environment disaster of the Probo Koala – the discharge of the petrochemical cargo of waste into a neighbourhood of the Ivorian economic capital, is only the tip of the iceberg. Environmental experts estimate that 10 % of the 100 million tons of toxic waste that would be generated each year are partly exported, in defiance of the international laws, to the African continent.  Andreas Bernstorff, the German specialist in this traffic, is estimating that the continent has become, with its 80 sites, a  home destination of the most harmful waste on the planet. Less dramatic, but equally troubling and emblematic of the ways in which the international law continues to be circumvented and ignored, the e-waste – the obsolete electronic equipments – is now threatening the health of the poorest inhabitants of the Anglophone Africa West megacities. According to the UN, 20 to 50 million tons of e-waste are produced annually, and officially, the OECD is committed to ensure that such wastes are no longer exported to emerging countries, by creating an incentive environmental levy to fund a collection structure for all devices at the end of life. However, there is more than 6 million tons of e-waste that continue to disappear in the developing countries.

And juste after the markets of China and India, it is the turn of Lagos (Nigeria) and Accra (Ghana) to suffer the consequences of the ongoing quest of the Northern consumers for the latest equipment. The old material, like used cars are subject to a lucrative trade for consumers in developing countries, and if this traffic is making the happiness of the new African middle class, it mainly contributes to the unhappiness of small people who cut up in the dumps. Two recent reports – one from International Consumers and the second from Greenpeace, attest that West Africa is becoming a dumping ground for all kinds of electronic equipments. The International Consumers reveals that on the 500 000 used computers reaching each month the port of Lagos, 75% of them end up in the dumps, exposing  many children who work in these dumps to hazardous substances causing negative consequences on the reproductive as well as on the nervous system. While the Greenpeace report is stating that the Ghanaians traders recognise that the deal of having a good working second hand computers shipment, they were obliged to accept the remainder of the cargo exported under the misnomer of “used equipment”.

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