the toxic truth - Greenpeace

the toxic truth
The dumping
in AbidjAn
“ The day of Monday 21st August 2006 was
long and difficult because of the persisting
odours, which had caused me sudden eye
irritation. Other colleagues complained of
sore throats, which had appeared immediately
after inhalation of the odours. We all carried
on working because we were unaware of the
danger and the nature of the odours. … Over
the following week I also suffered from intense
headache, a runny nose, dizziness and a sore
throat. The workers at my company, as well as
those from neighbouring companies, developed
symptoms such as: eye irritation in the form
of itching, stinging and red patches; bloating
accompanied by flatulence; alternate diarrhoea
and constipation; mouth sores like cuts in the
cheeks and nosebleeds. ”
Member of the workers’ union,
Collectif des Travailleurs de Vridi 153
On 17 August 2006, two days before the
arrival of the Probo Koala in Abidjan, Jorge
Marrero, a senior executive at Trafigura,
emailed Puma Energy, its Ivorian subsidiary,
to inform it of the imminent arrival of the ship
and that it needed to discharge 528m 3 of
slops. 154 In that email Trafigura informed its
subsidiary that, due to the chemical oxygen
demand (COD) being greater than 2000mg/l,
“these are not to be consider [sic] as ‘MARPOL
slops, but ‘Chemical slops’.” 155 The email also
Akouédo dump site, February 2009. People live and work close to the site.
© Amnesty InternAtIonAl
referred to the slops as “a mix of Gasoline,
with caustic Soda and a high concentration of
Mercaptan Sulphur”, and stated:
“ Due to the high concentration of
Mercaptan Sulphur the mix is very smelly
and have to be removed from the vessel and
disposed properly to avoid any environmental
concerns or problems with authorities. ” 156
Puma received the email at 1.46pm local time.
Shortly after that, a senior Puma company
executive, N’zi Kablan, 157 telephoned a port
agent called WAIBS (West African International
Business Services) to request the telephone
number of Ivorian Energy Technicians (ITE), 158
an established waste processing company in
Abidjan. 159 However, within minutes, N’zi Kablan
called WAIBS back and asked for contact
details for another company. He reportedly
explained that he could not reach the relevant
people at ITE by telephone, as the ITE office was
closed for the next half hour. 160 No explanation
has ever been provided as to why the executive
from Trafigura’s subsidiary company was
unwilling to wait 30 minutes to speak with an
established waste processing company with
whom Trafigura had worked before. 161 WAIBS
gave Puma the contact details of a newly
licensed company – Compagnie Tommy – but it
is unclear why they suggested this company. 162
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Chapter 4