What do you get if you dump 400 tonnes of petrochemical sludge into open tips around one of west Africa鈥檚 largest cities? At least seven deaths and up to 40,000 people complaining of vomiting, rash, breathing difficulties and headache, according to reports from Abidjan in the Ivory Coast, where such a shipment was unloaded on 19 August. The main poison seems to have been hydrogen sulphide 鈥� rotten egg gas 鈥� with lacings of mercaptan, another sulphureous poison.
This wasn鈥檛 supposed to happen. The 1980s saw repeated scandals in which noxious wastes were dumped cheaply in poor countries. In 1989, numerous countries signed a treaty in Basel, Switzerland, aimed at stopping toxic waste going anywhere it could not be treated safely, but there were loopholes and dumping continued. The treaty was amended in 1995, banning rich countries from sending any hazardous waste to poor ones, but so far too few countries have ratified it for that ban to come into force.
In the European Union, however, the ban was enacted as part of waste legislation, and the owner of the Abidjan waste is a Dutch commodity trading firm called Trafigura. The company says the waste is tank washings from a gasoline tanker, and as it originated aboard a ship rather than on land Trafigura claims it is exempt from the EU ban. But it admits the waste contains hazardous material that is subject to the Basel treaty, so the Dutch authorities say the exemption doesn鈥檛 apply.
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The mess in Abidjan has at least put toxic waste back in the spotlight. The 134 Basel treaty countries are meeting in Nairobi, Kenya, in November and Abidjan will certainly intensify calls for the 1995 amendment to finally be voted into force.
It is needed. Abidjan aside, campaigners say that while 1980s-style 鈥渢oxic tanker鈥� incidents have mostly stopped, poison-laden electronics and asbestos-ridden ships continue to be dumped in poor countries. In the Ivory Coast, where riots have broken out and the governing coalition has resigned as a result of the dumping, the final victim might be the country鈥檚 fragile peace process.
