the toxic truth - Greenpeace

150 Amnesty internAtionAl And greenpeAce netherlAnds
Chapter 12
LEFt: Bags of
hazardous waste
material left exposed
in Abidjan more than
two years after the
dumping, February
2009. © AmNESty
iNtErNAtioNAL
rigHt: Vridi,
Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire,
18 September 2006.
Probo Koala waste
had entered Canal
Petroci (drainage
canal) in Vridi. It was
discovered by staff of
a nearby factory when
they were looking for
the source of a very
bad smell near their
premises.
© m. KoNAtE
were also close to dwellings. Many were
ripped open and exposed to the elements.
The barbed wire surrounding them had not
been properly maintained, so it would have
been easy for people, including children, to
cross it. A local man who had been hired by
the authorities to guard the site told Amnesty
researchers that he had not been paid for
months but that he continued to monitor the
site because he was concerned about the
bags lying about in such an unsecured state.
In the Vridi industrial district, where up to a
third of all the waste from the Probo Koala
may have been dumped, 658 local people
claim that the sites have never been properly
decontaminated. Reportedly, the concrete
drainage system in Vridi, which had distributed
the waste, was emptied of toxic waste and
sediment. However the drainage system was
never replaced, despite being potentially
contaminated by the dumping. 659
In 2009, during Amnesty International’s visit,
people in Vridi claimed they could smell the
typical Probo Koala smells whenever it rained. 660
The same is true for people in and near the
village of Djibi who complain of “Probo Koala
smells” in periods of heavy rain. 661
The incomplete nature of the clean-up was
acknowledged by the government during
an interview with Amnesty International
in February 2009. The head of the Ivorian
environmental agency CIAPOL and a senior
official of the Ministry of Environment told
Amnesty International that a follow-up
programme of work, jointly led by CIAPOL and
the Bureau National d’Etudes Techniques
et de Développement (BNEDT), was due
to commence shortly and would run for a
four-year period. CIAPOL would take the lead
responsibility for the environmental study,
and, because of its engineering expertise,
BNEDT would lead the excavation works. 662