6 DEATHS AND THOUSANDS POISONED IN THE CAPITAL
August 2006 - In Abijam, the capital of the West African nation of Ivory Coast (AKA Cote D'Ivoire to foreigners), citizens are dying and becoming sickened in a deadly incident of illegal hazardous waste dumping. The waste was from the Probo Koala, a gasoline tanker, and was chartered to the port by the Dutch commodities trading firm Trafigura Beheer. Roughly 400 tons of the waste was then dumped in at least eight sites in the densely populated city.
Fumes from the oily waste, in particular hydrogen sulfide, began to killed and sicken residents. The two children died from breathing in the toxic fumes, and hundreds of others around the capital have been admitted to hospital for breathing difficulties and other related ailments. The Ivory Coast's prime minister was forced to dissolve his 32-member cabinet last week in the wake of the scandal, but the people are still dead. For the record, the trading firm has denied any wrongdoing and blamed a contractor at the port for "mishandling" the toxic waste. But the kids are still dead.
The Ivory Coast event marks an upward trend in the international illegal dumping of toxic materials. The traffic flow of this material is fairly simple: it goes from rich, Western nations to poor underdeveloped nations inhabited with people who can't do anything about it. It generally consists of computer and electronics waste, or petrochemical residue.
EXECUTVE SUMMARY: Luckily, this time is was only poor Africans, next time it could be
you.
HEY! GUESS WHO OPPOSES THE ANTI-DUMPING TREATY?
The Basel Convention, a treaty written in 1989, was supposed to stop these sort of crimes. The amendment has been implemented in the European Union, but has not been enforced globally. A long list of countries has failed to ratify the treaty, including wealthy nations who oppose the ban, such as the United States, Canada and Australia, and developing countries, such as India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Philippines, and - ironically - the Ivory Coast.
