the toxic truth - Greenpeace

the toxic truth
However, a filmmaker visiting Djibi one year later in January
2010 observed:
“ The site at Djibi is not protected. The pile of bags, hundreds
of them, are less than 100m from the houses of Djibi. and people
walk by the bags at all time, farmers are farming not far away,
some of the bags are even wide opened. Cows are on site. The
‘DaNGEr’ sign is almost on the ground. Some old fences are also
on the ground. In the village, everybody still smelled the waste
from their houses whenever it rains. although the site has security
guards since at least the beginning of this year, one can easily get
on the site. People are walking around all day. So the security is
only worried if you are a stranger trying to film or photograph. ”
BaGaSSI Koura
Film-maker, visiting Abidjan in January 2010 663
In mid-2010, Biogénie returned to Djibi village. According to
local people, they gathered together the contaminated material,
including the sacks seen by Amnesty International, at one
location near the village to treat it on site. The process of
collecting the contaminated material at Djibi reportedly led to a
resurgence of the smell, and people interviewed by telephone
in December 2010 stated that some villagers had again
displayed symptoms of ill health, and many people are afraid
of the implications of re-exposure. 664 The village had asked the
government to provide medical personnel to conduct a health
assessment but no medical assessment took place. 665
Lack of monitoring and fears about ongoing impacts
To this day, the people of Abidjan have not been made aware
of the exact composition of the waste, nor do they know
exactly where it was dumped and in what quantities. Although
a clean-up operation was undertaken, it is clear that this was
not thoroughly completed. As noted above, in some areas
people have reported a recurrence of the “Probo Koala smell”,
particularly during rainy periods, 666 and some continue to
complain about health effects, which they believe are linked to
exposure to the waste.
The medical response officially finished at the end of October
2006. Since then, there has been no ongoing health monitoring
and no research or analysis by the government into the
possible long-term implications of the exposure. One doctor
interviewed by Amnesty International in 2011 stated that he
had noticed an increase in respiratory problems, particularly
the persistence of asthma in some patients, who only started
to have this condition after exposure to the toxic waste. 667
Open-air sewer system allegedly contaminated by the waste.
© m. KoNAtE
trafigura Claims
no ongoing
health risks
In December 2008 Trafigura commissioned,
through its lawyers, McGuire-
Woods, an environmental consultancy
called WSP, to undertake an environmental
audit around the Abidjan area,
including visiting 14 of the suspected
dump sites. According to Trafigura,
WSP’s report concluded “that there is
no risk to human health from contaminants
specifically relating to slops at
the dump sites tested”. Trafigura also
stated that “WSP essentially looked
for ‘marker’ elements that could only
have come from the slops. …Given
that material equivalent to approximately
18 times the original volume of
the slops was removed from the sites,
it is not surprising that there was none
to be found.” According to Trafigura
WSP also identified a number of other
environmental issues, unrelated to the
waste, at some of the dumpsites. 668
Apart from a summary, Trafigura has
refused to make the reports of this
WSP study publicly available. The
conclusions that Trafigura drew from
the reports can therefore not be
verified. 669
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Chapter 12