the toxic truth - Greenpeace

48 Amnesty internAtionAl And greenpeAce netherlAnds
Chapter 4
Another driver recounted how he had dumped
waste in a canal:
“ … When I went to dump it, I realized it
was really bad. They wanted me to do a second
journey. I refused. The whole process took
place at night. I dumped it in the canal in
176
Vridi… ”
The drivers have stated in interviews with
Greenpeace that they did not know anything
about the waste they had been asked to
transport.
“ I’m sure none of the trucking companies
knew what the product was. No one. Nobody.
If a trucking company had known that the
product was so dangerous, he would never have
agreed to send out a truck. Because after this
happened, some people even wanted to just
get rid of their trucks… There were some cases
where the owners [told an employee] to take
the truck, to take it somewhere and burn it.
He didn’t want that truck any more. Imagine
a trucking company, which wants to make a
profit, and which is happy to see its trucks
burn! ” 177
Many of the drivers also experienced physical
symptoms associated with contact with the
waste.
“ I loaded the product and then I pulled away
from the dock. Then I called [name withheld] to
find out where I had to go. He told me someone
would accompany me to the parking lot to the
garage at Koumassi… When we arrived, it was
already late at night, so we parked the truck.
The next morning, when I arrived, the product
had damaged the security valve on my truck. I
released the lock and saw that the product had
already spilt out of the damaged hatch. When I
did this, the product got on to my hand. A while
later, when I touched my hand, and mainly the
nails, when I pushed they came off a little. So
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the product ate away at the hands. ”
“ I did one transport. I had some of the
product on my clothes, because when I want
to dump the product, some of it touched my
clothes. When I gave the clothes at home to my
wife, she got headaches, her belly ached, and
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she had to vomit. ”
In the months following the dumping many
of the drivers went into hiding, fearing public
anger if they were found to have been involved.
“ We felt we were victims; we did not know
the product was so dangerous. The people,
however, took us for murderers. It was for this
reason that we had to go into hiding and that we
could not consult doctors in the public health
centres to be treated. We had also lost our
contracts and it was always already difficult to
180
find work as a driver. ”
According to Trafigura, the drivers originally
claimed not to have suffered from any
symptoms as a result of transporting the
waste. This is also what one of the drivers
had already said in an interview with Ivorian
newspaper Le Patriote months before Trafigura
contacted the drivers. 181
Where was the
waste dumped?
A complete picture of where all of the waste
was dumped has never emerged. The fact that
the drivers dumped it in numerous locations
and subsequently went into hiding is one
reason why it later proved difficult to identify
all of the affected sites. A map with the most
widely accepted data released by UNOSAT (UN
Operational Satellite Applications Programme)
using information from Ivorian authorities,
the European Union and UNOCHA shows 18
dumping points.
UNOSAT map shows known dump sites. © UnItAr
Please also see Annex 1, which includes an overview of the
dumping and the impact points based on the testimonies of
the drivers that transported the waste.