Electronic waste dumped on Third World

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The head of a UN environmental programme has condemned the 'growing mountains of E-waste' that the West is inflicting on developing countries.

Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary General and Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) was speaking in Nairobi (pictured, right) at the opening of the 8th Conference of the Parties to the Basel Convention, which deals with the trans-national movement of hazardous waste.

'Consumerism is driving economies but also drives a growing mountain of E-waste not only from North to the South but South South - waste with a wide range of pollutants from heavy metals to chlorine compounds,' said Steiner. 'It is the most vulnerable who bear the brunt of this pollution.'

He highlighted the increase in global trade and consumerism, with its 'built in obsolescence'. This was 'driving the purchasing and discarding of products in a way unknown a generation ago', he declared.

He mentioned a recent report that suggested a minimum of 100,000 computers a month are entering the Nigerian port of Lagos, alone. If they were good quality pieces of equipment, he remarked, this would perhaps be a positive sign of trade. The truth of the matter, however was different.

'Local experts,' said Steiner, 'estimate that between a quarter to 75 per cent of these items including old TVs, CPUs and phones are defunct - in other words E-waste, in other words long distance dumping from developed country consumers and companies to an African rubbish tip or landfill.'

He also mentioned the increased levels of contamination of Asia's coastal waters, due to pollutants linked with E-waste.

He also made specific reference to the recent Côte d'Ivoire incident, where sites near a major city had been dumped with deadly toxic waste from abroad.

All this emphasised the need for nations to support the Basel convention, which has more than 160 countries as signatories: 'Let us support it practically, politically and financially to achieve its full potential in our common pursuit of overcoming poverty and achieving sustainability on this wonderful planet Earth,' he declared.

You can read the full speech by Achim Steiner on the UNEP website.

You can read more about the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes here.

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