Question: What would happen if an American company dumped something in a landfill in -- oh, say, Illinois somewhere -- and toxic fumes from this landfill drifted into a nearby town and caused seven deaths and made
40,000 people violently ill?
Answer: The cable news channels would be all over it like flies on manure. It would be 24/7 breathless coverage. There would be calls for congressional hearings. Grand juries would be convened. Personal injury lawyers would swoop in like locust. It would be on the front page of every American newspaper.
Well, it has actually happened. Except it's in Africa -- so nobody gives a damn.
What do you get if you dump 400 tonnes of petrochemical sludge into open tips around one of west Africa's 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 - rotten egg gas - with lacings of mercaptan, another sulphureous poison.
This sort of dumping used to be routine -- rich countries sending all their radioactive and toxic trash to poor nations to be dumped. Some guy in Ghana or Ivory Coast would get paid a few bucks and he'd dump the load of whatever on some beach somewhere.
But then people in countries with consciences got together and signed an agreement that said rich countries had to stop doing that and clean up their own damn messes.
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.
Oops. That's a loophole you could drive a freighter through. A freighter like this one that dumped all that toxic slop in Ivory Coast:
So, how does something like this happen? Easy.
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.
The folks in the middle of this nasty odor are not taking kindly to mere promises of a clean-up.
Hundreds of angry residents in Abidjan rioted over Ivory Coast's toxic waste dumping scandal that has claimed seven lives, left thousands unwell and brought down the government.
Despite announcements by Prime Minister Charles Konan Banny that a clean-up would start on Sunday to remove the illegally dumped toxic waste, up to 300 residents from the Akouedo and Riviera districts protested violently in this volatile city.
Banny said French waste management giant Tredi had been hired to clean up the sludge and he vowed to punish those responsible for the pollution that has led to some 26,000 medical consultations.
President Laurent Gbagbo said those who dumped the waste would "pay for their crime" but fury still raged in Abidjan.
Meanwhile, hospitals and health officials are overwhelmed, the government has resigned and a major crisis is rapidly developing.
The acting U.N. humanitarian coordinator in Ivory Coast, Youssouf Omar, says reliable sources indicate significant amounts of waste were also dumped in the sea and lagoon surrounding Abidjan. The same odor wafts up from the lagoon. But Prime Minister Charles Konan Banny has assured the population it will not enter the water supply.
Ivorian, French and U.N. experts have been analyzing the toxins, but have so far only been able to verify that sulphur compounds are present.
With the dumpsites closed, household rubbish is no longer being collected and is piling up around Abidjan in huge, foul smelling mounds.
And yet, this scandal has barely dented the media. Just a bunch of Africans.
Maybe if one of the victims was named JonBenet.....
Update: Crossposted at Myleftwing and at Swords Crossed.