the toxic truth - Greenpeace

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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. 669 151 Chapter 12
152 Amnesty internAtionAl And greenpeAce netherlAnds Chapter 12 However, such anecdotal evidence is insufficient to draw conclusions, and clearly a robust system should have been put in place to monitor the affected population over time. “ Now after the toxic waste dumping we are even more worried that we are having to eat the contaminated foodstuffs. Despite the prohibition on cultivating, people are still growing produce (such as bananas) in the affected areas and this stuff must end up in the local market. We also drink the water but we are anxious about it. We don’t have any information about the impact of the waste on the water table. ” raChEl GoGoua President of the Association of the victims of Akouédo Extension 670 The UN Special Rapporteur on Toxic Waste and Human Rights called on the government of Côte d’Ivoire, after his mission to the country, to engage in a broad consultative process on the “outstanding issues and measures required to address possible long-term human health and environmental effects of the incident”; “conducting a health survey in affected areas and a mapping of outstanding health issues and providing adequate medical assistance to victims, including treatment of new and long-term manifestations of illnesses as a result of the dumping”; and “[e]nsure full access to information for those affected on measures taken to address possible long-term adverse effects on health and the environment of the incident”. 671 Victims of the toxic waste dumping have a right to know whether or not the waste can have long-term impacts, and, if so, what these are and how they can receive treatment. Ongoing monitoring of the population would provide some reassurance. Amnesty International and Greenpeace have asked the government of Côte d’Ivoire why this was not done, using the compensation secured through the settlement with Trafigura, but at the time of writing, no response has been received. Trafigura has claimed that the waste could not have serious or long-term impacts. However, the company has refused to make public scientific data that it holds, so that this can be subject to independent scrutiny (this issue is discussed in greater detail in the Annex to this report ).
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