26 September 2006
Toxic death ship background
by Andrew (in the Greenpeace office, Amsterdam)
© Greenpeace/Christian Ã…slund.
From the Greenpeace International website:
Our activists have blocked the toxic ship Probo Koala in the harbour of Paldiski, Estonia and branded it an 'EU Toxic Crime Scene.' The Probo Koala dumped toxic waste in Abidjan, in the Ivory Coast, killing seven people and causing mass panic, with 44,000 people seeking medical assistance.
But this isn't just about an African country. In early August, the Probo Koala wanted to discharge these chemical slops in the Netherlands. From the Independent Online:
However, last week Dutch daily De Volkskrant reported that the ship had tried to unload its slops in Amsterdam, but that the operation had been halted because the slops smelt of rotten eggs, a sign of possible sulphur contamination."We can process this, but it costs more," the director of Amsterdam Port Services (APS), T Smit, told De Volkskrant. The fatal gas in Abidjan is thought to have been hydrogen sulphide, which also smells of rotten eggs.
Then the ship left port and headed to Africa. There are rules to keep wealthy nations from using poor ones as dumping grounds for toxic waste. According to a UN expert, this time the rules were broken. From the International Herald Tribune:
"It's pure petrochemical waste," said Rudolph Walder, a Swiss hazardous waste expert with the United Nations Disaster Assessment and Coordination mission. He said the material included solids, oily substances and water — products that could come from a refinery, from the petrochemical industry or from the cleaning of ships.
We have come a long way in the past twenty years, but obviously not far enought. The New Scientist puts this incident in perspective:
The mess in Abidjan has at least put toxic waste back in the spotlight. The 134 Basel treaty countries are meeting in Nairobi, Kenya, in November and Abidjan will certainly intensify calls for the 1995 amendment [strengthening the treaty] to finally be voted into force.
Form more in depth info, and a map of the tanker's route, check out this article in Spiegel.
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Comments
Thanks for the honourable task accomplished by greenpeace activists, that is to render puclic that which is otherwise silenced and too easily ignored. Had a ship such as the Probo Koala dumped toxic residue in an industrialized country such as Canada, surely revolted citizens and leaders from all over would have persecuted the company behind the ship and newscasts would have it known by all that so many victims were involved. But how many newspapers have it on the front page that 44000 Africans suffer from health problems following a dump of toxic waste which most probably originates from our own industrial activities and individual consuming. My question is exactly where do these wastes come from? Which companies, which countries produce them? Though there are laws prohibiting the dumping of toxic waste onto less wealthy country,s land, but why aren't there severe law enforcements obliging the producers of polluting substances to use a fraction of their already exageratedly high profits to deal with the decontamination of the results of their activities themselves? Can boycotting the companies in question be a solution? Can boycotting action from entire countries until decontamination responsibilities are taken be conceivable?
Posted by: Jass at September 26, 2006 6:11 PM
Avast ye land lubbers! The ocean critters need your help!
Take action today!
