EU, US dumping toxic waste in Africa

European states are still using African coasts as a dumping ground of toxic waste, even after enactment of legislation aimed at ending the practice by the European Union.

The worst examples of such dumping in the recent past, according to a report by the international environmental campaign group Greenpeace, is at the Somali port of Eel Ma’aan, north of Mogadishu.

Greenpeace is now calling on the United Nations to investigate the dumping of toxic and radioactive materials in Somalia.

In a 36-page document titled “Toxic Ships,” the UK-based group claims that it has photographic evidence from an inconclusive investigation by the Italian authorities into the suspected burying of shipping containers filled with toxic waste inside the foundations of the port at Eel Ma’aan, in the 1990s.

The EU adopted tough regulations on e-waste in 2003 but almost 70 per cent is still unaccounted for, Greenpeace said, citing figures from the European Commission.

“Waste management is extremely lucrative,” the group said, citing a sector turnover of €100 billion ($124 billion), providing up to 1.5 million jobs.

Europe generates some 1.3 billion tonnes of household and industrial waste a year, plus 700 million tonnes of agricultural waste, according to the European Environment Agency.

Of this, 40 million tonnes is hazardous.”

Ever since ocean dumping of industrial and radioactive waste was banned by the London Convention in 1993, Greenpeace says that “rumours of dumping operations in the Mediterranean, Southeast Asia, and off the coast of Somalia had been circulating, but governments have done little or nothing to verify them at source.”

But it says despite the new legislation, “the dirty, lucrative business goes on” and that “every day “toxic ships” sail from EU ports with cargos of toxic waste destined for a developing country.

Between 1988 and 1994, Greenpeace revealed 94 attempted or actual cases of hazardous waste exports to Africa, involving over 10 million tonnes of residues.

Some schemes included the building of local waste management facilities, incinerators and landfills.

Others concerned radioactive waste — such as the infamous ODM project that targeted at least 16 different African countries.

Many schemes, however, were simple dumping operations.

Waste containers were shipped following the path of least resistance and weakest governance, ending up in remote areas of countries such as Equatorial Guinea, Lebanon, Somalia and the Congo.