Africa Waste Bits & Pieces
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21/09/06, Meera Selva, Toxic shock: How Western rubbish is destroying Africa, (Source).
19/09/06, Two Frenchmen Arrested in Poisonous Sludge Scandal, (Source).
18/09/06, Profits for Europe, Industrial Sludge for Africa, (Source).
07/09/06, Joe Bavier, Ivory Coast Government Disbanded Over Toxic Waste Scandal, (Source).
07/09/06, Ivory Coast Cabinet resigns en masse, (Source).
06/09/06, Hundreds Hospitalised After Breathing Toxic Fumes, (Source).
06/09/06, Joe Bavier, Protesters Block Streets in Ivory Coast Over Toxic Waste Scandal, (Source).
05/09/06, Ivory Coast residents protest foul smell in main city of Abidjan, (Source).
04/03/05, Toxic waste sickening Somalia, (Source).
23/02/05, Toxic waste on Somali beaches, (Source).
19/09/06, Two Frenchmen Arrested in Poisonous Sludge Scandal, (Back).
Amid outrage over the dumping of highly toxic industrial waste around Ivory Coast's capital Abidjan, officials on Monday made the first arrests in the case. Two French executives of a Dutch commodities trader are among those in custody.
Ivory Coast authorities have made the first arrests connected with the illegal dumping of tons of deadly toxic waste around the nation's capital. Justice Ministry official Ali Yeo told reporters on Tuesday that two Frenchmen connected with the Holland-based commodities trader responsible for shipping the industrial sludge to Ivory Coast were taken into custody on Monday and charged under the country's laws against toxic waste and poisoning.
The two Trafigura Beheer BV executives, director Claude Dauphin and manager for West Africa Jean-Pierre Valentini, had been prevented from boarding a plane out of the country on Saturday. Trafigura said it was "very shocked" by the arrests and added that the two had been in Ivory Coast on a humanitarian mission and to assist with the investigation.
Some 528 tons of the sludge, which contains the deadly chemical hydrogen sulphide, was dumped in 14 sites around the Ivory Coast capital Abidjan late last month. Seven people have died and thousands more fell ill after inhaling the toxic fumes. Violent protests over the weekend resulted in the beating up of one government minister the burning of the home of Abidjan's port director. Seven Ivorians and one Nigerian, including those responsible for the companies that completed port formalities and unloaded the ship in question, have likewise been arrested under toxic waste laws.
Trafigura maintains that the toxic waste was dumped by a local contractor which it hired in good faith to dispose of the sludge, which the company describes as a "mixture of gasoline, water and caustic washings." The local company, Tommy, is described in a government permit as a specialist in draining, maintaining and refuelling ships. The Associated Press reports on Tuesday that numerous attempts to contact company officials have been unsuccessful and phone calls have not been returned.
Public outrage over the dumping resulted in the resignation of the country's government, with President Laurent Gbagbo appointing a new government on Saturday. A French company began waste removal on Sunday and the process was expected to take two weeks.
18/09/06, Profits for Europe, Industrial Sludge for Africa, (Back).
Europe wouldn't take the ship's stinking, poisonous cargo. So it sailed to Africa and dumped the toxic mess into an Ivory Coast lagoon. Just the most recent example of western nations using Africa as a toxic waste dump.
The worst is when it rains. The water flows through the streets of Abidjan, the capital city of Ivory Coast, located next to a series of lagoons. With the water comes a toxic soup of industrial poison -- a dark, glistening mess reeking of sulfur and rotten eggs. The caustic fumes it releases cause vomiting, nosebleeds, headache and rashes.
The hospital in Cocody, a downtown neighborhood in this city of 4 million, is in a state of high alert. Women stand waiting in the hallways, pressing paper masks tightly against their noses and mouths. Masks are currently a hot commodity in the Ivory Coast, where street dealers sell them for 20 West African centimes apiece.
A little over a month ago, a fleet of tanker trucks loaded with a toxic brew of cleaning chemicals and gasoline and crude oil sludge was dispatched into the streets of Abidjan. Under cover of night, the drivers secretly dumped their loads in 14 locations around the city -- near vegetable fields, fisheries and water reservoirs. All told, the cargo amounted to 528 cubic meters (18,857 cubic feet) of toxic waste that had reached the West African coast on board an oil and cargo freighter.
Now many residential neighborhoods adjoining the dumpsites are all but deserted. When news broke of the first casualties, thousands packed their belongings onto donkey carts and buses and moved to the nearby forests -- from which many had only recently fled to escape the violence of the country's civil war. Angry demonstrators poured through Abidjan's streets. The transportation minister, who had resigned over the scandal, was seriously beaten in broad daylight. The toxic sludge has already claimed the lives of seven people, four of them children, and more than 9,000 have fallen ill, according to official figures. And although the vapors are gradually becoming less toxic, this is no reason for optimism. The disaster has crippled the city's garbage collection, prompting fears in the medical community of epidemic disease.
The disaster is instructive: This is what happens when affluent western societies run out of places to dump their waste; when increasingly stringent environmental laws at home mean skyrocketing waste disposal costs; when criminal profiteers seek low-cost solutions.
The dead and sick in Abidjan demonstrate the failures of government agencies, of the unscrupulousness of businessmen and the dubious nature of international agreements like the Basel Convention, which has in fact banned the international transport of toxic waste to developing countries since 1989. For Achim Steiner, director of United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP), the toxic shipment dumped in the Ivory Coast is "a particularly painful example of how illegal waste disposal causes human suffering."
Removing European waste
Some experts see Abidjan's toxic cocktail as Africa's biggest environmental scandal yet. But the odyssey of the Probo Koala reveals the scandal as a sordid story that unfolded in the heart of Europe.
It began on the afternoon of July 2. As the ship was unloaded in Amsterdam's petroleum port, a west wind carried its sharp stench into nearby residential neighborhoods, where residents notified the police. "This is the worst stench we have ever experienced here," said an employee of Amsterdam Port Services (APS), a waste disposal company. APS took a sample of the black substance from one of the ship's tanks. Though declared as "waste water" used to clean gasoline shipping tanks, chemical analysis told a different story. The hydrocarbons in the material contained high concentrations of a substance known as mercaptan -- a substance which is found in some crude oils and is produced by decaying vegetable matter, which is highly toxic -- and smelly -- in high concentrations. Authorities halted the unloading of the waste. The captain of the ship, which was Greek-owned and registered in Panama, angrily turned down a proposal by APS officials to dispose of the waste properly at special facilities in Rotterdam. The cost would have been about $250,000, plus another $250,000 in contractual penalties for the ship's likely delayed arrival at its next port of call in Estonia.
For executives at Trafigura, a Dutch oil trading company with annual sales of $28 billion, that cost was too high. Management decided to send the ship on its way.
Three days later, the Probo Koala set sail again, now bound for Estonia. Under international regulations governing the cross-border shipping of hazardous waste, German authorities should have been notified of the ship's passage to German and Danish waters. Amsterdam port officials did send an urgent message to their counterparts in Paldiski, an Estonian port, informing them that a ship with a "suspicious cargo" was headed their way. The Probo Koala was also unable to get rid of its chemical soup in Paldiski, where it took on a shipment of gasoline bound for Africa. After unloading the gasoline in Nigeria, the Trafigura-chartered vessel arrived in the Ivory Coast in August. A company called Tommy, which had just been established in July, took delivery of the sludge which the European ports had turned away.
The Ivorian media was filled with speculation over the incident. Was Tommy established specifically for this deal? And did Trafigura play a role? Both Trafigura and members of the president's family held shares in a company called Puma Energy, which awarded Tommy the contract to dispose of the toxic sludge the ship was carrying. Officials at Trafigura's headquarters in the Netherlands have denied any involvement in Tommy.
Local papers came under pressure for reports on what they described as the "Ivorian Chernobyl." Two journalists were arrested, along with seven employees of the waste disposal companies. Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo, who may be involved in the waste scandal through his family members, promptly dismissed the entire government.
SPIEGEL has obtained a copy of a confidential fax the captain of the Probo Koala, Jorge Marrero, sent to his African partner company, in which he writes that the load was "not waste water from normal shipping operations," but "chemical waste water" that exceeded allowable limits.
Records documenting the ship's movement show that the Probo Koala spent a lengthy period of time this year off the coast of Gibraltar and the Spanish city of Algeciras, where it served as a sort of "bunker ship" for chemical wastes from other ships -- a claim Trafigura has denied.
According to an analysis by experts at Amsterdam's APS, the material's characteristics suggested that it was waste material from refineries. Trafigura, however, has said the oil waste on the Probo Koala had accumulated in the ship's lower tank after "multiple cleanings." The chemical cocktail, says Trafigura, developed as a result of "the addition of too much soda."
A trend in Europe
Whatever subsequent studies reveal, insiders are concerned about what is clearly a growing trend. Global trade will continue to generate waste scandals, says UNEP director Steiner, because "the smuggling of hazardous waste is becoming more and more lucrative." Steiner wants to see his agency better equipped to identify such "corrupt deals with deadly consequences" before they take place and to have "tough penalties" imposed on violators. The UN agency plans to send $13.5 million in immediate aid to the Ivory Coast.
The international environmental organization Greenpeace also fears that emerging nations and their often corrupt regimes are once again offering the industrialized world inexpensive waste disposal options. Although the practice had subsided somewhat in recent years as a result of various treaties, there are now growing reports of attempts to export toxic waste. This has prompted Gerd Leipold, Executive Director of Greenpeace International, to warn of a new "toxic waste colonialism." As a number of recent cases illustrate, Leipold's concerns are not unfounded:
Bales of sorted plastic remnants collected under Germany's Green Dot household recycling program ended up in the Egyptian desert.
In Nigeria, a businessman was paid $100 a month to store thousands of containers of Italian toxic waste on his property.
In a deal the government of the West African country of Benin signed with France, Benin gets an advance cash payment of $1.6 million and 30 years of development aid in return for accepting hazardous waste, including radioactive waste.
Often masked as the exportation of "valuable goods," large amounts of discarded computers, mobile phones and other electronic junk, as well as old cars and refrigerators are sent to Africa -- all filled with hazardous substances, some of which are highly toxic, including oil, fire retardants, dioxins and PCBs.
A toxic-waste incident of frightening proportions could already be in the making in war-torn Somalia on Africa's eastern coast. The December 2004 tsunami also reached Somalia's sandy coast, where it claimed about 300 lives. German aid organization Caritas provided humanitarian aid through its Somali partner organization, especially to the Somali fishermen affected by the giant wave.
Somalis took the Caritas aid workers to the beach to show them a strange discovery. The tsunami had exposed large tanks in the sediment off the country's flat coast and pushed them ashore. The unlabeled containers of unknown origin are carefully welded shut. By knocking on the tanks, the workers discovered that they contained liquid.
Caritas hired Andreas Bernstorff, the former head of Greenpeace, to travel to Somalia, where he provided the local workers with protective suits. Initial plans to fill the tanks' presumably toxic contents into other containers were abandoned. Instead, the workers temporarily encased the mysterious containers in fiberglass mats.
Citing "security reasons" stemming from Somalia's civil war, UNEP declined to conduct an investigation. It is known that large shipments of toxic waste, especially from Italy and Switzerland, were taken to Somalia in the 1980s and may have been dumped off the coast. The matter can only be resolved by professionally drilling into the thick-walled tanks under stringent safety precautions. Nevertheless, any new information the tests could yield is unlikely to produce significant consequences after so many years.
But the Probo Koala case, on the other hand, has generated political pressure in the Netherlands, especially against Pieter van Geel, the Dutch State Secretary for the Environment, whose inspectors had certified the black sludge as relatively harmless "ship waste." Under the current plan, Abidjan's toxic waste will be recovered and burned in a French hazardous waste treatment facility.
Dutch investigators are not unfamiliar with oil trading company Trafigura, which was presumably behind the scandal. A court in Texas ordered the company, established in 1993, to pay penalties and repay profits of close to $20 million for breaking US laws and violating the embargo provisions of the "Oil for Food" program in Iraq.
A UN investigative commission also believes that Trafigura paid large sums of money to the son of UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, Kojo.
In the current case, the company insists "the cargo was properly disposed of." Nevertheless, say company spokesmen, Trafigura is "concerned" over "residue from the petrol cargo" in the Ivory Coast.
07/09/06, Joe Bavier, Ivory Coast Government Disbanded Over Toxic Waste Scandal, (Back).
Ivory Coast's Prime Minister Charles Konan Banny has dissolved the country's transitional government amid a scandal over the dumping of toxic waste in the commercial capital, Abidjan. The prime minister is due to meet with President Laurent Gbagbo Thursday to form a new government.
The news of the disbanding of Ivory Coasts nine-month-old transitional government was announced by Prime Minister Charles Konan Banny, following a special cabinet meeting called in the administrative capital, Yamoussoukro, Wednesday.
Mr. Banny tells President Laurent Gbagbo the situation is serious. That's why, he says, he is handing in the resignation of the government.
The dissolution of the government followed the reading of a statement issued by the cabinet on the current state of the health crisis that has marred Ivory Coasts main city, Abidjan, for several days.
In it the government stated that, to date, 1,500 of the city's residents had so far sought medical care for symptoms suspected of having links to the dumping of toxic waste in several landfills in Abidjan. Three people were confirmed to have died as a result of their illnesses.
The government vowed to pay the medical cost for those in need of treatment. A special commission is currently looking into the affair. And three people have already been arrested.
President Gbagbo, in accepting the government's resignation, said this crisis is different from the failed coup attempt in late 2002 that had degenerated into civil war.
He says it is an evil we are not used to. "We have lived through all kinds of problems in Ivory Coast," he said, " but we have never known this kind of toxic waste in Abidjan."
Mr. Banny will, for now, stay on as prime minister. He is due to meet with the president Thursday afternoon in Abidjan to name a new government.
07/09/06, Ivory Coast Cabinet resigns en masse, (Back).
32-member governing body quits over toxic fumes that killed 3 children.
YAMOUSSOUKRO, Ivory Coast - Ivory Coast's entire 32-member Cabinet resigned, state radio said Wednesday, amid growing anger over a wave of toxic fumes blamed for the deaths of three children.
The ministers offered their resignations and President Laurent Gbagbo accepted after the children's deaths were attributed to residue from a gasoline shipment apparently dumped near residential areas in Abidjan, Ivory Coast's largest city and commercial hub, state radio reported.
A new 32-member Cabinet was expected to be formed. The national-unity Cabinet includes top rebel leaders from Ivory Coast's 2002-2003 civil war, Gbagbo loyalists and opposition politicians.
Abidjan residents began complaining of an offensive stench in recent weeks and Trafigura Beheer B.V., a Dutch-based commodities company, said a local contractor may have improperly disposed of a byproduct from a fuel shipment sent to the West African nation.
Among the chemicals in the residue was hydrogen sulfide, which in concentrated doses can kill humans but when diffused gives off the odor of matches or rotten eggs, according to an Ivorian government health report.
Hundreds of residents took to the streets Tuesday to complain about the stench, turning away vehicles and waving placards asking the government to act to clean up the area.
Many people have gone to hospitals with complaints ranging from eye irritation to nausea, health officials said.
State radio said a French clean-up team was expected to arrive soon to help deal with the crisis.
06/09/06, Hundreds Hospitalised After Breathing Toxic Fumes, (Back).
UN Integrated Regional Information Networks, Abidjan
Hundreds of people have been admitted to hospital after breathing toxic fumes from poisonous waste dumped in residential areas of Cote d'Ivoire's main city, Abidjan.
On Tuesday, hundreds of the city's residents threw up barricades in protest, prompting the government to appeal on national television for roads to be cleared so that medical personnel could get through. The waste is residue from gasoline cargo shipped to Abidjan's port last month.
Local newspapers this week reported that two children died after inhaling the toxic fumes.
In a bid to reassure the population, health officials appeared on state television late Tuesday to say the government was trying to locate the sites where the waste had been discharged.
"Indeed, the waste consists of toxic products," said Health Minister Remi Allah Kouadio, adding that the government was considering supplying local hospitals with medication.
Hundreds of people had turned up at local hospitals, some with complaints ranging from eye irritation to nausea, while others were desperately seeking information about the nature of the waste following rumours that it was radioactive, a health official told IRIN on condition of anonymity.
Local media reports about the waste began appearing last week as residents complained of a pervading noxious odour emanating from several different neighbourhoods, including the city's main garbage dump.
Protests began on Monday near the garbage disposal site and the city zoo, with scores of people barricading roads to stop tanker trucks and brandishing placards accusing the government of negligence.
"We have been living with this horrible smell for two weeks and it is making us sick," said Guy Roland, a young resident of Plateau Dokui, one of the affected neighbourhoods. "We are asking the authorities to do something."
After gasoline from the Netherlands-based commodities trading firm Trafigura Beheer B.V. was unloaded two weeks ago a local company specialising in chemical waste disposal was charged with getting rid of the residue, according to Trafigura.
The waste contains the strong-smelling chemicals hydrogen sulphide and mercaptan, according to a report by the Ivorian Anti-Pollution Centre (CIAPOL), obtained by IRIN.
The report says hydrogen sulphide is "a toxic substance that can lead to immediate death when inhaled".
In a statement, Trafigura said it was "very concerned that the residue of the ship... has been disposed of inappropriately in Abidjan".
Trafigura Beheer B.V. is the holding company of Trafigura Group, a leading independent commodities trading company specialising in petrol, gasoline and base metals.
The company confirmed in a statement that the cargo had been gasoline, containing a mixture of petrol and sulphur, with an added concentration of sulphuric products. It said it had informed authorities about the nature of the waste and had sent a written request that it should be safely discarded.
The company declined requests for an interview.
06/09/06, Joe Bavier, Protesters Block Streets in Ivory Coast Over Toxic Waste Scandal, (Back).
Hundreds of angry protesters have blocked main roads in Ivory Coast's commercial capital, Abidjan, over the government's handling of a toxic waste scandal. Thousands say they are suffering from health problems linked to harmful chemicals in the city's landfills, as local hospitals try to cope with a rising number of patients.
Protests that began several days ago near the contaminated landfills have spread to some of the principle arteries of Ivory Coast's largest city. Hundreds of angry protesters near the national television and radio headquarters manned improvised roadblocks, as riot police waited in trucks nearby.
Officials made appeals on television and radio throughout the morning, asking that free circulation be given to medical personnel.
George Rajis was on his way to work in Abidjan when he came across the demonstrations.
"They told me that they dropped toxic waste, and that there are people dying. So that is why the population came out, and they are protesting that the government should do something about the whole thing," he said.
A ship owned by the Dutch company Trafigura Beheer BV is being accused of offloading tons of toxic chemicals two weeks ago in Abidjan that later found their way into local landfills.
Nearby residents complained of the smell. And local press began reporting health problems among those living near the contaminated sites last week.
The company, which says the ships cargo contained a mixture of gasoline and sulfur, with an added concentration of sulfuric products, said in a statement that it is very concerned that the chemicals were not disposed of properly.
Eric Meresso lives near one of the landfills and went to a special treatment center at the university hospital in the Cocody neighborhood of Abidjan.
"I am feeling very bad in my throat," he said. "I have headaches, and I cannot breathe properly. And I have another disease on my skin."
Hospitals have already treated hundreds of people suffering mainly from respiratory and digestive problems. Local media have reported that several people have died from illnesses related to the toxic waste.
Meresso says he blames the government.
"I think that the authorities are to be blamed, because they did not take care of the population," he said. "They had to take care of us, but there is negligence. I blame the authorities for this."
Ivory Coast's Prime Minister Charles Konan Banny was holding an emergency meeting of his government Wednesday in the administrative capital, Yamoussoukro. The meeting is intended to specifically treat the subject of the toxic waste.
05/09/06, Ivory Coast residents protest foul smell in main city of Abidjan, (Back).
Hundreds of people blocked roads Tuesday to protest a foul stench permeating Ivory Coast's main city after residue from a gasoline shipment was apparently dumped around residential areas.
Abidjan residents began complaining of a smell of rotten eggs in recent weeks and a Dutch commodities company said Tuesday a local contractor may have improperly disposed of a byproduct from a fuel shipment sent to the West African nation.
Among the chemicals in the residue was hydrogen sulfide, which in concentrated doses can kill humans but when diffused gives off the odor of matches or rotten eggs, according to an Ivorian government health report.
Hundreds of residents took to the streets Tuesday to complain, turning away vehicles and waving placards asking the government to act to clean up their areas.
"We have been living with this horrible smell for two weeks and it is making us sick," said Guy Roland, a young resident of Plateau Dokui, one of the neighborhoods affected by the odor. "We are asking the authorities to do something."
Ivory Coast's Health Minister took to the airwaves late Monday to address concerns, saying, "It's clear that Ivory Coast has never before faced a scourge like this."
The gasoline importer, Netherlands-based Trafigura Beheer B.V., said it had hired a local company to dispose of the fuel residue.
"Trafigura Beheer BV is very concerned at reports that the residue of the gasoline cargo ... has been disposed of inappopriately in Abidjan," the company said in a statement. Company officials denied requests for further comment.
So far, no deaths have been reported, although many people have gone to hospitals with complaints ranging from eye irritation to nausea, health officials said.
Others were seeking information after rumors spread that the disposed material was radioactive.
Ivory Coast, still split between rebel and government-controlled areas since a 2002-2003 civil war, is the world's largest cocoa producer.
04/03/05, Toxic waste sickening Somalia, (Back).
Nairobi - Very toxic waste washed on to Somali's coastline by last December's tsumani have spawned diseases bearing symptoms of radioactive exposure in villagers along the shorelines of the shattered African nation, UN Environment Programme said on Friday.
Citing initial reports, Unep spokesperson Nick Nuttall told AFP that "there are indications that harzardous waste, radioactive waste, chemical waste and other substances, (in containers) which have been dumped on the Somali coastline, were damaged by the tsunami".
United Nations officials said the deadly waves, which originated off Indonesia on December 26, possibly damaged the containers in northern Somalia and spilled the waste to the open, from where it spread further - either by wind and humans - causing diseases.
Nuttall said United Nations agencies working in northern Somalia, a country that has been wracked by anarchy since 1991, reported symptoms of diseases.
"There are reports from villagers of a wide range of medical problems like mouth bleeds, abdominal haemorrhages, unusual skin disorders and breathing difficulties," Nuttall said. UN officials familiar with the situation say the diseases bear radiation sickness symptoms.
"Unep is in discussions with (Somali) government with a view to sending a full assessment mission to the country so that we can work out the magnitude of the problem," Nuttall explained.
Somalia authorities reported that nearly 300 people - a figure the humanitarian agencies dispute - were killed and thousands displaced by the tsunami waves, which were sparked by an undersea quake in Indonesia on December 26.
In the late 1980s, European firms dumped wastes such as uranium, lead, cadmium, mercury and other industrial waste in northern Somalia, but the trend picked up rapidly after the violent ouster of strongman Mohammed Siad Barre in 1991, according to United Nations officials.
23/02/05, Toxic waste on Somali beaches, (Back).
Nairobi - Toxic waste has washed up on Somalia's shores almost two months after the devastating tsunami that struck countries bordering the Indian Ocean, according to a study by the UN environment programme presented on Tuesday in Nairobi.
The waste had been illegally sunk in the ocean years earlier, according to the report, which highlighted the dramatic consequences the tsunami has had on the environment.
The UN study focused on the long-term effects of the tsunami.
According to the report: "The tsunami has washed up toxic waste on beaches.
"Many people in Somalia's impacted areas are complaining of unusual health problems including acute respiratory infections, mouth bleeds and skin conditions."
Experts estimate that it costs about $2.50 to sink a ton of toxic waste off the African Coast compared to $250 that would have to be paid in Europe.
Experts have also recommended not to repeat mistakes made in the past and not to build in vulnerable areas.
Mangroves and coral reefs had to be preserved as they could form flood barriers.
21/09/06, Meera Selva, Toxic shock: How Western rubbish is destroying Africa, (Back).
Western corporations are exploiting legal loopholes to dump their waste in Africa. And in Ivory Coast, the price has been death and disease for thousands.
One August morning, people living near the Akouedo rubbish dump in Abidjan, capital of the Ivory Coast, woke up to a foul-smelling air. Soon, they began to vomit, children got diarrhoea, and the elderly found it difficult to breathe. "The smell was unbelievable, a cross between rotten eggs and blocked drains," said one Abidjan resident. "After 10 minutes in the thick of it, I felt sick."
As they live near the biggest landfill in Abidjan, the people of Akouedo are used to having rubbish dumped on their doorstep. Trucks unload broken glass, rotting food and used syringes. Children try to make the best of their dismal playground, looking for scraps of metal and old clothes to sell for a few cents.
But this time, the waste would benefit no one. By yesterday, at least six people, including two children, had died from the fumes. Another 15,000have sought treatment for nausea, vomiting and headaches, queuing for hours at hastily set up clinics. Pharmacies have run out of medicines and the World Health Organisation has sent emergency supplies to help the health system. The Ivorian government had resigned over the matter and, so far, eight people have been arrested.
The tragedy is said to have begun on 19 August, after a ship chartered by a Dutch company offloaded 400 tons of gasoline, water and caustic washings used to clean oil drums. The cargo was dumped at Akouedo and at least 10 other sites around the city, including in a channel leading to a lake, roadsides and open grounds.
The liquids began to send up fumes of hydrogen sulphide, petroleum distillates and sodium hydroxides across the city. As the tidy-up operation begins, environmental groups have begun to ask how this occurred.
"We thought the days when companies shipped toxic waste to poor countries were over," said Helen Perivier, toxics co-ordinator for Greenpeace. "It peaked in the 1980s but since then the determination of African countries to stamp the trade out has helped yield results. That this has happened again is extraordinary."
Probo Koala, the ship that offloaded the waste, is registered in Panama and chartered by the Dutch trading company Trafigura Beheer. Trafigura had tried to offload its slops in Amsterdam, but the Amsterdam Port Services recognised its contents as toxic and asked to renegotiate terms. Trafigura said shipping delays would mean penalties of at least 250,000 US dollars (£133,000) so handed it over to a disposal company in Abidjan alongside a "written request that the material should be safely disposed of, according to country laws, and with all the correct documentation."
This story is a common one. All down the West Africa coast, ships registered in America and Europe unload containers filled with old computers, slops, and used medical equipment. Scrap merchants, corrupt politicians and underpaid civil servants take charge of this rubbish and, for a few dollars, will dump them off coastlines and on landfill sites.
Throughout the 1980s, Africa was Europe's most popular dumping ground, with radioactive waste and toxic chemicals foisted on landowners. In 1987 an Italian ship dumped a load ofwaste on Koko Beach, Nigeria. Workers who came into contact with it suffered from chemical burns and partial paralysis, and began to vomit blood.
Thereafter, the UN drew up plans to regulate the trade in hazardous waste through the Basel Convention. By 1998, the European Union had agreed to implement the ban, which prohibited the export of hazardous wastes from developed countries to the developing world, but the USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand refused to sign up;global waterways are still filled with ships looking to unload their toxic waste.
And now, there is a new threat - the dumping of electronic waste, or e-waste: unwanted mobile phones, computers and printers, which contain cadmium, lead, mercury and other poisons. More than 20 million computers become obsolete in America alone each year.
The UK generates almost 2 million tons of electronic waste. Disposing of this in America and Europe costs money, so many companies sell it to middle merchants, who promise the computers can be reused in Africa, China and India. Each month about 500 container loads, containing about 400,000 unwanted computers, arrive in Nigeria to be processed. But 75 per cent of units shipped to Nigeria cannot be resold. So they sit on landfills, and children scrabble barefoot, looking for scraps of copper wire or nails. And every so often, the plastics are burnt, sending fumes up into the air.
"There is a tradition of burning rubbish all over Africa, but this new burning of electronic equipment is incredibly dangerous," said Sarah Westervelt of the Basel Action Network, a pressure group that monitors the trade in hazardous waste. In China, workers burn PVC-coated wires to get at the copper, and swirl acids in buckets to extract scraps of gold.
The United Nations Environment Programme estimates that worldwide, 20 million to 50 million tons of electronics are discarded each year. Less than 10 per cent gets recycled and half or more ends up overseas. As Western technology becomes cheaper and the latest machine comes to be regarded as a disposable fashion statement, this dumping will only intensify.
"Electronic goods are the fastest growing area of retail," said Liz Parkes, head of waste regulation at the Environment Agency. "We need to encourage people to think about whether they really need a new electronic item, and to consider what happens to the goods they throw out."
Where does our rubbish go?
* Inspections of 18 European ports in 2005 found that 47 per cent of all waste destined for export was in fact illegal. (Greenpeace)
* In 1993, there were two million tons of waste crossing the globe. By 2001, it had risen to 8.5 million. (UN)
* UK households throw away 93 million pieces of electrical equipment a year - about four items per household. Many of these end up in West Africa, India or China. (Industry Council for Electronic Equipment Recycling)
* There are more than 20 million redundant mobile phones in the UK. (Industry Council for Electronic Equipment Recycling)
* From next summer, manufacturers and importers of electrical goods will have to take responsibility for collecting and reusing old or outdated equipment. (Defra)
* It is illegal to ship hazardous waste out of Europe, but old electronic items can be sent to developing countries for "recycling". (Defra)
(Back)
19/09/06, Two Frenchmen Arrested in Poisonous Sludge Scandal, (Source).
18/09/06, Profits for Europe, Industrial Sludge for Africa, (Source).
07/09/06, Joe Bavier, Ivory Coast Government Disbanded Over Toxic Waste Scandal, (Source).
07/09/06, Ivory Coast Cabinet resigns en masse, (Source).
06/09/06, Hundreds Hospitalised After Breathing Toxic Fumes, (Source).
06/09/06, Joe Bavier, Protesters Block Streets in Ivory Coast Over Toxic Waste Scandal, (Source).
05/09/06, Ivory Coast residents protest foul smell in main city of Abidjan, (Source).
04/03/05, Toxic waste sickening Somalia, (Source).
23/02/05, Toxic waste on Somali beaches, (Source).
19/09/06, Two Frenchmen Arrested in Poisonous Sludge Scandal, (Back).
Amid outrage over the dumping of highly toxic industrial waste around Ivory Coast's capital Abidjan, officials on Monday made the first arrests in the case. Two French executives of a Dutch commodities trader are among those in custody.
Ivory Coast authorities have made the first arrests connected with the illegal dumping of tons of deadly toxic waste around the nation's capital. Justice Ministry official Ali Yeo told reporters on Tuesday that two Frenchmen connected with the Holland-based commodities trader responsible for shipping the industrial sludge to Ivory Coast were taken into custody on Monday and charged under the country's laws against toxic waste and poisoning.
The two Trafigura Beheer BV executives, director Claude Dauphin and manager for West Africa Jean-Pierre Valentini, had been prevented from boarding a plane out of the country on Saturday. Trafigura said it was "very shocked" by the arrests and added that the two had been in Ivory Coast on a humanitarian mission and to assist with the investigation.
Some 528 tons of the sludge, which contains the deadly chemical hydrogen sulphide, was dumped in 14 sites around the Ivory Coast capital Abidjan late last month. Seven people have died and thousands more fell ill after inhaling the toxic fumes. Violent protests over the weekend resulted in the beating up of one government minister the burning of the home of Abidjan's port director. Seven Ivorians and one Nigerian, including those responsible for the companies that completed port formalities and unloaded the ship in question, have likewise been arrested under toxic waste laws.
Trafigura maintains that the toxic waste was dumped by a local contractor which it hired in good faith to dispose of the sludge, which the company describes as a "mixture of gasoline, water and caustic washings." The local company, Tommy, is described in a government permit as a specialist in draining, maintaining and refuelling ships. The Associated Press reports on Tuesday that numerous attempts to contact company officials have been unsuccessful and phone calls have not been returned.
Public outrage over the dumping resulted in the resignation of the country's government, with President Laurent Gbagbo appointing a new government on Saturday. A French company began waste removal on Sunday and the process was expected to take two weeks.
18/09/06, Profits for Europe, Industrial Sludge for Africa, (Back).
Europe wouldn't take the ship's stinking, poisonous cargo. So it sailed to Africa and dumped the toxic mess into an Ivory Coast lagoon. Just the most recent example of western nations using Africa as a toxic waste dump.
The worst is when it rains. The water flows through the streets of Abidjan, the capital city of Ivory Coast, located next to a series of lagoons. With the water comes a toxic soup of industrial poison -- a dark, glistening mess reeking of sulfur and rotten eggs. The caustic fumes it releases cause vomiting, nosebleeds, headache and rashes.
The hospital in Cocody, a downtown neighborhood in this city of 4 million, is in a state of high alert. Women stand waiting in the hallways, pressing paper masks tightly against their noses and mouths. Masks are currently a hot commodity in the Ivory Coast, where street dealers sell them for 20 West African centimes apiece.
A little over a month ago, a fleet of tanker trucks loaded with a toxic brew of cleaning chemicals and gasoline and crude oil sludge was dispatched into the streets of Abidjan. Under cover of night, the drivers secretly dumped their loads in 14 locations around the city -- near vegetable fields, fisheries and water reservoirs. All told, the cargo amounted to 528 cubic meters (18,857 cubic feet) of toxic waste that had reached the West African coast on board an oil and cargo freighter.
Now many residential neighborhoods adjoining the dumpsites are all but deserted. When news broke of the first casualties, thousands packed their belongings onto donkey carts and buses and moved to the nearby forests -- from which many had only recently fled to escape the violence of the country's civil war. Angry demonstrators poured through Abidjan's streets. The transportation minister, who had resigned over the scandal, was seriously beaten in broad daylight. The toxic sludge has already claimed the lives of seven people, four of them children, and more than 9,000 have fallen ill, according to official figures. And although the vapors are gradually becoming less toxic, this is no reason for optimism. The disaster has crippled the city's garbage collection, prompting fears in the medical community of epidemic disease.
The disaster is instructive: This is what happens when affluent western societies run out of places to dump their waste; when increasingly stringent environmental laws at home mean skyrocketing waste disposal costs; when criminal profiteers seek low-cost solutions.
The dead and sick in Abidjan demonstrate the failures of government agencies, of the unscrupulousness of businessmen and the dubious nature of international agreements like the Basel Convention, which has in fact banned the international transport of toxic waste to developing countries since 1989. For Achim Steiner, director of United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP), the toxic shipment dumped in the Ivory Coast is "a particularly painful example of how illegal waste disposal causes human suffering."
Removing European waste
Some experts see Abidjan's toxic cocktail as Africa's biggest environmental scandal yet. But the odyssey of the Probo Koala reveals the scandal as a sordid story that unfolded in the heart of Europe.
It began on the afternoon of July 2. As the ship was unloaded in Amsterdam's petroleum port, a west wind carried its sharp stench into nearby residential neighborhoods, where residents notified the police. "This is the worst stench we have ever experienced here," said an employee of Amsterdam Port Services (APS), a waste disposal company. APS took a sample of the black substance from one of the ship's tanks. Though declared as "waste water" used to clean gasoline shipping tanks, chemical analysis told a different story. The hydrocarbons in the material contained high concentrations of a substance known as mercaptan -- a substance which is found in some crude oils and is produced by decaying vegetable matter, which is highly toxic -- and smelly -- in high concentrations. Authorities halted the unloading of the waste. The captain of the ship, which was Greek-owned and registered in Panama, angrily turned down a proposal by APS officials to dispose of the waste properly at special facilities in Rotterdam. The cost would have been about $250,000, plus another $250,000 in contractual penalties for the ship's likely delayed arrival at its next port of call in Estonia.
For executives at Trafigura, a Dutch oil trading company with annual sales of $28 billion, that cost was too high. Management decided to send the ship on its way.
Three days later, the Probo Koala set sail again, now bound for Estonia. Under international regulations governing the cross-border shipping of hazardous waste, German authorities should have been notified of the ship's passage to German and Danish waters. Amsterdam port officials did send an urgent message to their counterparts in Paldiski, an Estonian port, informing them that a ship with a "suspicious cargo" was headed their way. The Probo Koala was also unable to get rid of its chemical soup in Paldiski, where it took on a shipment of gasoline bound for Africa. After unloading the gasoline in Nigeria, the Trafigura-chartered vessel arrived in the Ivory Coast in August. A company called Tommy, which had just been established in July, took delivery of the sludge which the European ports had turned away.
The Ivorian media was filled with speculation over the incident. Was Tommy established specifically for this deal? And did Trafigura play a role? Both Trafigura and members of the president's family held shares in a company called Puma Energy, which awarded Tommy the contract to dispose of the toxic sludge the ship was carrying. Officials at Trafigura's headquarters in the Netherlands have denied any involvement in Tommy.
Local papers came under pressure for reports on what they described as the "Ivorian Chernobyl." Two journalists were arrested, along with seven employees of the waste disposal companies. Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo, who may be involved in the waste scandal through his family members, promptly dismissed the entire government.
SPIEGEL has obtained a copy of a confidential fax the captain of the Probo Koala, Jorge Marrero, sent to his African partner company, in which he writes that the load was "not waste water from normal shipping operations," but "chemical waste water" that exceeded allowable limits.
Records documenting the ship's movement show that the Probo Koala spent a lengthy period of time this year off the coast of Gibraltar and the Spanish city of Algeciras, where it served as a sort of "bunker ship" for chemical wastes from other ships -- a claim Trafigura has denied.
According to an analysis by experts at Amsterdam's APS, the material's characteristics suggested that it was waste material from refineries. Trafigura, however, has said the oil waste on the Probo Koala had accumulated in the ship's lower tank after "multiple cleanings." The chemical cocktail, says Trafigura, developed as a result of "the addition of too much soda."
A trend in Europe
Whatever subsequent studies reveal, insiders are concerned about what is clearly a growing trend. Global trade will continue to generate waste scandals, says UNEP director Steiner, because "the smuggling of hazardous waste is becoming more and more lucrative." Steiner wants to see his agency better equipped to identify such "corrupt deals with deadly consequences" before they take place and to have "tough penalties" imposed on violators. The UN agency plans to send $13.5 million in immediate aid to the Ivory Coast.
The international environmental organization Greenpeace also fears that emerging nations and their often corrupt regimes are once again offering the industrialized world inexpensive waste disposal options. Although the practice had subsided somewhat in recent years as a result of various treaties, there are now growing reports of attempts to export toxic waste. This has prompted Gerd Leipold, Executive Director of Greenpeace International, to warn of a new "toxic waste colonialism." As a number of recent cases illustrate, Leipold's concerns are not unfounded:
Bales of sorted plastic remnants collected under Germany's Green Dot household recycling program ended up in the Egyptian desert.
In Nigeria, a businessman was paid $100 a month to store thousands of containers of Italian toxic waste on his property.
In a deal the government of the West African country of Benin signed with France, Benin gets an advance cash payment of $1.6 million and 30 years of development aid in return for accepting hazardous waste, including radioactive waste.
Often masked as the exportation of "valuable goods," large amounts of discarded computers, mobile phones and other electronic junk, as well as old cars and refrigerators are sent to Africa -- all filled with hazardous substances, some of which are highly toxic, including oil, fire retardants, dioxins and PCBs.
A toxic-waste incident of frightening proportions could already be in the making in war-torn Somalia on Africa's eastern coast. The December 2004 tsunami also reached Somalia's sandy coast, where it claimed about 300 lives. German aid organization Caritas provided humanitarian aid through its Somali partner organization, especially to the Somali fishermen affected by the giant wave.
Somalis took the Caritas aid workers to the beach to show them a strange discovery. The tsunami had exposed large tanks in the sediment off the country's flat coast and pushed them ashore. The unlabeled containers of unknown origin are carefully welded shut. By knocking on the tanks, the workers discovered that they contained liquid.
Caritas hired Andreas Bernstorff, the former head of Greenpeace, to travel to Somalia, where he provided the local workers with protective suits. Initial plans to fill the tanks' presumably toxic contents into other containers were abandoned. Instead, the workers temporarily encased the mysterious containers in fiberglass mats.
Citing "security reasons" stemming from Somalia's civil war, UNEP declined to conduct an investigation. It is known that large shipments of toxic waste, especially from Italy and Switzerland, were taken to Somalia in the 1980s and may have been dumped off the coast. The matter can only be resolved by professionally drilling into the thick-walled tanks under stringent safety precautions. Nevertheless, any new information the tests could yield is unlikely to produce significant consequences after so many years.
But the Probo Koala case, on the other hand, has generated political pressure in the Netherlands, especially against Pieter van Geel, the Dutch State Secretary for the Environment, whose inspectors had certified the black sludge as relatively harmless "ship waste." Under the current plan, Abidjan's toxic waste will be recovered and burned in a French hazardous waste treatment facility.
Dutch investigators are not unfamiliar with oil trading company Trafigura, which was presumably behind the scandal. A court in Texas ordered the company, established in 1993, to pay penalties and repay profits of close to $20 million for breaking US laws and violating the embargo provisions of the "Oil for Food" program in Iraq.
A UN investigative commission also believes that Trafigura paid large sums of money to the son of UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, Kojo.
In the current case, the company insists "the cargo was properly disposed of." Nevertheless, say company spokesmen, Trafigura is "concerned" over "residue from the petrol cargo" in the Ivory Coast.
07/09/06, Joe Bavier, Ivory Coast Government Disbanded Over Toxic Waste Scandal, (Back).
Ivory Coast's Prime Minister Charles Konan Banny has dissolved the country's transitional government amid a scandal over the dumping of toxic waste in the commercial capital, Abidjan. The prime minister is due to meet with President Laurent Gbagbo Thursday to form a new government.
The news of the disbanding of Ivory Coasts nine-month-old transitional government was announced by Prime Minister Charles Konan Banny, following a special cabinet meeting called in the administrative capital, Yamoussoukro, Wednesday.
Mr. Banny tells President Laurent Gbagbo the situation is serious. That's why, he says, he is handing in the resignation of the government.
The dissolution of the government followed the reading of a statement issued by the cabinet on the current state of the health crisis that has marred Ivory Coasts main city, Abidjan, for several days.
In it the government stated that, to date, 1,500 of the city's residents had so far sought medical care for symptoms suspected of having links to the dumping of toxic waste in several landfills in Abidjan. Three people were confirmed to have died as a result of their illnesses.
The government vowed to pay the medical cost for those in need of treatment. A special commission is currently looking into the affair. And three people have already been arrested.
President Gbagbo, in accepting the government's resignation, said this crisis is different from the failed coup attempt in late 2002 that had degenerated into civil war.
He says it is an evil we are not used to. "We have lived through all kinds of problems in Ivory Coast," he said, " but we have never known this kind of toxic waste in Abidjan."
Mr. Banny will, for now, stay on as prime minister. He is due to meet with the president Thursday afternoon in Abidjan to name a new government.
07/09/06, Ivory Coast Cabinet resigns en masse, (Back).
32-member governing body quits over toxic fumes that killed 3 children.
YAMOUSSOUKRO, Ivory Coast - Ivory Coast's entire 32-member Cabinet resigned, state radio said Wednesday, amid growing anger over a wave of toxic fumes blamed for the deaths of three children.
The ministers offered their resignations and President Laurent Gbagbo accepted after the children's deaths were attributed to residue from a gasoline shipment apparently dumped near residential areas in Abidjan, Ivory Coast's largest city and commercial hub, state radio reported.
A new 32-member Cabinet was expected to be formed. The national-unity Cabinet includes top rebel leaders from Ivory Coast's 2002-2003 civil war, Gbagbo loyalists and opposition politicians.
Abidjan residents began complaining of an offensive stench in recent weeks and Trafigura Beheer B.V., a Dutch-based commodities company, said a local contractor may have improperly disposed of a byproduct from a fuel shipment sent to the West African nation.
Among the chemicals in the residue was hydrogen sulfide, which in concentrated doses can kill humans but when diffused gives off the odor of matches or rotten eggs, according to an Ivorian government health report.
Hundreds of residents took to the streets Tuesday to complain about the stench, turning away vehicles and waving placards asking the government to act to clean up the area.
Many people have gone to hospitals with complaints ranging from eye irritation to nausea, health officials said.
State radio said a French clean-up team was expected to arrive soon to help deal with the crisis.
06/09/06, Hundreds Hospitalised After Breathing Toxic Fumes, (Back).
UN Integrated Regional Information Networks, Abidjan
Hundreds of people have been admitted to hospital after breathing toxic fumes from poisonous waste dumped in residential areas of Cote d'Ivoire's main city, Abidjan.
On Tuesday, hundreds of the city's residents threw up barricades in protest, prompting the government to appeal on national television for roads to be cleared so that medical personnel could get through. The waste is residue from gasoline cargo shipped to Abidjan's port last month.
Local newspapers this week reported that two children died after inhaling the toxic fumes.
In a bid to reassure the population, health officials appeared on state television late Tuesday to say the government was trying to locate the sites where the waste had been discharged.
"Indeed, the waste consists of toxic products," said Health Minister Remi Allah Kouadio, adding that the government was considering supplying local hospitals with medication.
Hundreds of people had turned up at local hospitals, some with complaints ranging from eye irritation to nausea, while others were desperately seeking information about the nature of the waste following rumours that it was radioactive, a health official told IRIN on condition of anonymity.
Local media reports about the waste began appearing last week as residents complained of a pervading noxious odour emanating from several different neighbourhoods, including the city's main garbage dump.
Protests began on Monday near the garbage disposal site and the city zoo, with scores of people barricading roads to stop tanker trucks and brandishing placards accusing the government of negligence.
"We have been living with this horrible smell for two weeks and it is making us sick," said Guy Roland, a young resident of Plateau Dokui, one of the affected neighbourhoods. "We are asking the authorities to do something."
After gasoline from the Netherlands-based commodities trading firm Trafigura Beheer B.V. was unloaded two weeks ago a local company specialising in chemical waste disposal was charged with getting rid of the residue, according to Trafigura.
The waste contains the strong-smelling chemicals hydrogen sulphide and mercaptan, according to a report by the Ivorian Anti-Pollution Centre (CIAPOL), obtained by IRIN.
The report says hydrogen sulphide is "a toxic substance that can lead to immediate death when inhaled".
In a statement, Trafigura said it was "very concerned that the residue of the ship... has been disposed of inappropriately in Abidjan".
Trafigura Beheer B.V. is the holding company of Trafigura Group, a leading independent commodities trading company specialising in petrol, gasoline and base metals.
The company confirmed in a statement that the cargo had been gasoline, containing a mixture of petrol and sulphur, with an added concentration of sulphuric products. It said it had informed authorities about the nature of the waste and had sent a written request that it should be safely discarded.
The company declined requests for an interview.
06/09/06, Joe Bavier, Protesters Block Streets in Ivory Coast Over Toxic Waste Scandal, (Back).
Hundreds of angry protesters have blocked main roads in Ivory Coast's commercial capital, Abidjan, over the government's handling of a toxic waste scandal. Thousands say they are suffering from health problems linked to harmful chemicals in the city's landfills, as local hospitals try to cope with a rising number of patients.
Protests that began several days ago near the contaminated landfills have spread to some of the principle arteries of Ivory Coast's largest city. Hundreds of angry protesters near the national television and radio headquarters manned improvised roadblocks, as riot police waited in trucks nearby.
Officials made appeals on television and radio throughout the morning, asking that free circulation be given to medical personnel.
George Rajis was on his way to work in Abidjan when he came across the demonstrations.
"They told me that they dropped toxic waste, and that there are people dying. So that is why the population came out, and they are protesting that the government should do something about the whole thing," he said.
A ship owned by the Dutch company Trafigura Beheer BV is being accused of offloading tons of toxic chemicals two weeks ago in Abidjan that later found their way into local landfills.
Nearby residents complained of the smell. And local press began reporting health problems among those living near the contaminated sites last week.
The company, which says the ships cargo contained a mixture of gasoline and sulfur, with an added concentration of sulfuric products, said in a statement that it is very concerned that the chemicals were not disposed of properly.
Eric Meresso lives near one of the landfills and went to a special treatment center at the university hospital in the Cocody neighborhood of Abidjan.
"I am feeling very bad in my throat," he said. "I have headaches, and I cannot breathe properly. And I have another disease on my skin."
Hospitals have already treated hundreds of people suffering mainly from respiratory and digestive problems. Local media have reported that several people have died from illnesses related to the toxic waste.
Meresso says he blames the government.
"I think that the authorities are to be blamed, because they did not take care of the population," he said. "They had to take care of us, but there is negligence. I blame the authorities for this."
Ivory Coast's Prime Minister Charles Konan Banny was holding an emergency meeting of his government Wednesday in the administrative capital, Yamoussoukro. The meeting is intended to specifically treat the subject of the toxic waste.
05/09/06, Ivory Coast residents protest foul smell in main city of Abidjan, (Back).
Hundreds of people blocked roads Tuesday to protest a foul stench permeating Ivory Coast's main city after residue from a gasoline shipment was apparently dumped around residential areas.
Abidjan residents began complaining of a smell of rotten eggs in recent weeks and a Dutch commodities company said Tuesday a local contractor may have improperly disposed of a byproduct from a fuel shipment sent to the West African nation.
Among the chemicals in the residue was hydrogen sulfide, which in concentrated doses can kill humans but when diffused gives off the odor of matches or rotten eggs, according to an Ivorian government health report.
Hundreds of residents took to the streets Tuesday to complain, turning away vehicles and waving placards asking the government to act to clean up their areas.
"We have been living with this horrible smell for two weeks and it is making us sick," said Guy Roland, a young resident of Plateau Dokui, one of the neighborhoods affected by the odor. "We are asking the authorities to do something."
Ivory Coast's Health Minister took to the airwaves late Monday to address concerns, saying, "It's clear that Ivory Coast has never before faced a scourge like this."
The gasoline importer, Netherlands-based Trafigura Beheer B.V., said it had hired a local company to dispose of the fuel residue.
"Trafigura Beheer BV is very concerned at reports that the residue of the gasoline cargo ... has been disposed of inappopriately in Abidjan," the company said in a statement. Company officials denied requests for further comment.
So far, no deaths have been reported, although many people have gone to hospitals with complaints ranging from eye irritation to nausea, health officials said.
Others were seeking information after rumors spread that the disposed material was radioactive.
Ivory Coast, still split between rebel and government-controlled areas since a 2002-2003 civil war, is the world's largest cocoa producer.
04/03/05, Toxic waste sickening Somalia, (Back).
Nairobi - Very toxic waste washed on to Somali's coastline by last December's tsumani have spawned diseases bearing symptoms of radioactive exposure in villagers along the shorelines of the shattered African nation, UN Environment Programme said on Friday.
Citing initial reports, Unep spokesperson Nick Nuttall told AFP that "there are indications that harzardous waste, radioactive waste, chemical waste and other substances, (in containers) which have been dumped on the Somali coastline, were damaged by the tsunami".
United Nations officials said the deadly waves, which originated off Indonesia on December 26, possibly damaged the containers in northern Somalia and spilled the waste to the open, from where it spread further - either by wind and humans - causing diseases.
Nuttall said United Nations agencies working in northern Somalia, a country that has been wracked by anarchy since 1991, reported symptoms of diseases.
"There are reports from villagers of a wide range of medical problems like mouth bleeds, abdominal haemorrhages, unusual skin disorders and breathing difficulties," Nuttall said. UN officials familiar with the situation say the diseases bear radiation sickness symptoms.
"Unep is in discussions with (Somali) government with a view to sending a full assessment mission to the country so that we can work out the magnitude of the problem," Nuttall explained.
Somalia authorities reported that nearly 300 people - a figure the humanitarian agencies dispute - were killed and thousands displaced by the tsunami waves, which were sparked by an undersea quake in Indonesia on December 26.
In the late 1980s, European firms dumped wastes such as uranium, lead, cadmium, mercury and other industrial waste in northern Somalia, but the trend picked up rapidly after the violent ouster of strongman Mohammed Siad Barre in 1991, according to United Nations officials.
23/02/05, Toxic waste on Somali beaches, (Back).
Nairobi - Toxic waste has washed up on Somalia's shores almost two months after the devastating tsunami that struck countries bordering the Indian Ocean, according to a study by the UN environment programme presented on Tuesday in Nairobi.
The waste had been illegally sunk in the ocean years earlier, according to the report, which highlighted the dramatic consequences the tsunami has had on the environment.
The UN study focused on the long-term effects of the tsunami.
According to the report: "The tsunami has washed up toxic waste on beaches.
"Many people in Somalia's impacted areas are complaining of unusual health problems including acute respiratory infections, mouth bleeds and skin conditions."
Experts estimate that it costs about $2.50 to sink a ton of toxic waste off the African Coast compared to $250 that would have to be paid in Europe.
Experts have also recommended not to repeat mistakes made in the past and not to build in vulnerable areas.
Mangroves and coral reefs had to be preserved as they could form flood barriers.
21/09/06, Meera Selva, Toxic shock: How Western rubbish is destroying Africa, (Back).
Western corporations are exploiting legal loopholes to dump their waste in Africa. And in Ivory Coast, the price has been death and disease for thousands.
One August morning, people living near the Akouedo rubbish dump in Abidjan, capital of the Ivory Coast, woke up to a foul-smelling air. Soon, they began to vomit, children got diarrhoea, and the elderly found it difficult to breathe. "The smell was unbelievable, a cross between rotten eggs and blocked drains," said one Abidjan resident. "After 10 minutes in the thick of it, I felt sick."
As they live near the biggest landfill in Abidjan, the people of Akouedo are used to having rubbish dumped on their doorstep. Trucks unload broken glass, rotting food and used syringes. Children try to make the best of their dismal playground, looking for scraps of metal and old clothes to sell for a few cents.
But this time, the waste would benefit no one. By yesterday, at least six people, including two children, had died from the fumes. Another 15,000have sought treatment for nausea, vomiting and headaches, queuing for hours at hastily set up clinics. Pharmacies have run out of medicines and the World Health Organisation has sent emergency supplies to help the health system. The Ivorian government had resigned over the matter and, so far, eight people have been arrested.
The tragedy is said to have begun on 19 August, after a ship chartered by a Dutch company offloaded 400 tons of gasoline, water and caustic washings used to clean oil drums. The cargo was dumped at Akouedo and at least 10 other sites around the city, including in a channel leading to a lake, roadsides and open grounds.
The liquids began to send up fumes of hydrogen sulphide, petroleum distillates and sodium hydroxides across the city. As the tidy-up operation begins, environmental groups have begun to ask how this occurred.
"We thought the days when companies shipped toxic waste to poor countries were over," said Helen Perivier, toxics co-ordinator for Greenpeace. "It peaked in the 1980s but since then the determination of African countries to stamp the trade out has helped yield results. That this has happened again is extraordinary."
Probo Koala, the ship that offloaded the waste, is registered in Panama and chartered by the Dutch trading company Trafigura Beheer. Trafigura had tried to offload its slops in Amsterdam, but the Amsterdam Port Services recognised its contents as toxic and asked to renegotiate terms. Trafigura said shipping delays would mean penalties of at least 250,000 US dollars (£133,000) so handed it over to a disposal company in Abidjan alongside a "written request that the material should be safely disposed of, according to country laws, and with all the correct documentation."
This story is a common one. All down the West Africa coast, ships registered in America and Europe unload containers filled with old computers, slops, and used medical equipment. Scrap merchants, corrupt politicians and underpaid civil servants take charge of this rubbish and, for a few dollars, will dump them off coastlines and on landfill sites.
Throughout the 1980s, Africa was Europe's most popular dumping ground, with radioactive waste and toxic chemicals foisted on landowners. In 1987 an Italian ship dumped a load ofwaste on Koko Beach, Nigeria. Workers who came into contact with it suffered from chemical burns and partial paralysis, and began to vomit blood.
Thereafter, the UN drew up plans to regulate the trade in hazardous waste through the Basel Convention. By 1998, the European Union had agreed to implement the ban, which prohibited the export of hazardous wastes from developed countries to the developing world, but the USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand refused to sign up;global waterways are still filled with ships looking to unload their toxic waste.
And now, there is a new threat - the dumping of electronic waste, or e-waste: unwanted mobile phones, computers and printers, which contain cadmium, lead, mercury and other poisons. More than 20 million computers become obsolete in America alone each year.
The UK generates almost 2 million tons of electronic waste. Disposing of this in America and Europe costs money, so many companies sell it to middle merchants, who promise the computers can be reused in Africa, China and India. Each month about 500 container loads, containing about 400,000 unwanted computers, arrive in Nigeria to be processed. But 75 per cent of units shipped to Nigeria cannot be resold. So they sit on landfills, and children scrabble barefoot, looking for scraps of copper wire or nails. And every so often, the plastics are burnt, sending fumes up into the air.
"There is a tradition of burning rubbish all over Africa, but this new burning of electronic equipment is incredibly dangerous," said Sarah Westervelt of the Basel Action Network, a pressure group that monitors the trade in hazardous waste. In China, workers burn PVC-coated wires to get at the copper, and swirl acids in buckets to extract scraps of gold.
The United Nations Environment Programme estimates that worldwide, 20 million to 50 million tons of electronics are discarded each year. Less than 10 per cent gets recycled and half or more ends up overseas. As Western technology becomes cheaper and the latest machine comes to be regarded as a disposable fashion statement, this dumping will only intensify.
"Electronic goods are the fastest growing area of retail," said Liz Parkes, head of waste regulation at the Environment Agency. "We need to encourage people to think about whether they really need a new electronic item, and to consider what happens to the goods they throw out."
Where does our rubbish go?
* Inspections of 18 European ports in 2005 found that 47 per cent of all waste destined for export was in fact illegal. (Greenpeace)
* In 1993, there were two million tons of waste crossing the globe. By 2001, it had risen to 8.5 million. (UN)
* UK households throw away 93 million pieces of electrical equipment a year - about four items per household. Many of these end up in West Africa, India or China. (Industry Council for Electronic Equipment Recycling)
* There are more than 20 million redundant mobile phones in the UK. (Industry Council for Electronic Equipment Recycling)
* From next summer, manufacturers and importers of electrical goods will have to take responsibility for collecting and reusing old or outdated equipment. (Defra)
* It is illegal to ship hazardous waste out of Europe, but old electronic items can be sent to developing countries for "recycling". (Defra)
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