Wasting the Nation.indd - Groundwork

Chapter 3: The politics of wastelevels because cows eat grass contaminated with dioxin fallout from incinerators. Theyare then further concentrated in mothers’ milk. Finally, Thompson and Anthonyconclude, “All chemicals capable of entering the food chain will sooner or later reachtheir highest concentration in the foetus or breast fed infant” [2005: 34]. The foetusand infant are also most vulnerable to pollution but the limits set by regulators arecalculated only against the presumed tolerance of adults.The burnIncineration seems to have a peculiar fascination for both the industry and officials.While South Africa’s incinerators continued to belch poisons, the Danish developmentaid agency Danida was engaged in a laudable international effort, the ‘African StockpilesProgramme’ [see Box 9], to collect abandoned agricultural chemicals scatteredacross rural Southern Africa. Having removed them, Danida planned to incineratethe chemicals in a cement kiln at Matola in northern Mozambique. Shortly before,Denmark’s environmental aid agency Danced had refused to support a proposal fromPretoria Portland Cement to burn hazardous waste at its Pretoria kiln. Danced’sresearch on cement kiln incineration apparently showed very heavy pollution withlittle prospect of mitigation. 40 Danida took no account of this research and producedonly a perfunctory environmental impact assessment.Nor did it consult local people or civil society. Not even the mayor of Matola was awareof the project until a delegation from EJNF arrived to alert people. The visit resultedin the formation of Mozambique’s first environmental NGO, called Livaningo. Thename means ‘shedding light’ and was chosen because Mozambican “civil society hadpreviously been kept in the dark”. 41 After an intense battle with the Mozambicangovernment and Danida, Livaningo won its demand for a public review of the EIA.The review strongly opposed incinerating the obsolete chemicals and proposed thatthey be returned to the countries of origin.40 Danced’s research was not made public.41 Mozambique civil society unites against Danida incineration project, EJNF Newsletter, No.19, Spring 1998/Summer 1999.- 60 - groundWork - Wasting the Nation