Strengthen inspection process at the harbour - MP

Accra, Jan. 27, GNA - Mr. Rudi Daems, a Member of the Flemish Parliament in Belgium on Tuesday called on government to strengthen the inspection capability and processes at the harbour to avoid the dumping of electronic waste in the country. "A lot of electronic goods such as computer and television sets are transported under the name of 'second hand goods' or 'personal goods.' A part of this goods arrive at the second hand markets but another part of it goes straight to dumping sites such as Agbobloshie, a suburb of Accra," he said.

Mr. Daems, who is in the country to do a research on the illegal export of all kinds of waste to developing countries in Asia and Africa, said this at a press conference. He said there was the need for legislation on second hand electronic goods import because most electronic goods contain toxic materials such as heavy metals, acids, brominated flame retardants and the burning of such waste released dangerous chemicals into the atmosphere which is very harmful to human health. In Ghana most scrap dealers' burn these electronic goods at Agbobloshie in the open and with bare hands and the burning of such items are usually done by children between the ages of three to 15. He gave evidence of vessels, Julie Delmas and MSC Suez, which arrived at the Tema harbour on Sunday January 24 and said there were about 13 containers designated as suspect but the owners have refused to open the containers for no apparent reason. "We did some research in the past month with the cooperation of the Belgian Environmental Protection Agency (EPA); we managed to trace some illegal containers leaving the harbour of Antwerp, the main port of Belgian toward the Tema Harbour in Ghana. A few containers were stopped on the Julie Delmas vessels and sent back to the producer of the electronic waste in Germany."

"Other containers with 'suspect' contents were not stopped because the vessels had already left the harbour when the official transport documents were delivered to the customs and the EPA. The Belgium EPA therefore asked EPA Ghana to do some inspection when the vessels arrive in Tema."

Mr Daems, an Environmentalist said his aim was not to prohibit the export of second hand goods to Africa but the condition has to be that, these goods are 100 per cent re-usable and afterwards they are recycled and treated in an environmentally friendly way. He said he hoped to convince public opinion and political leaders in Belgium and Europe as a whole that, it was unacceptable that developed countries are allowed to export illegal goods to developing countries like Ghana.

Mr Daems said Ghana was a signatory to the Basel Convention, a declaration adopted in 1989 and entered into force in 1992 with more than 170 member countries, which stated that member countries should ensure that hazardous waste are managed and disposed in an environmentally sound manner. He expressed the hope that the government of Ghana will act on the situation by sending back some containers with illegal electronic waste to Europe and added that, if the Ghanaian authorities are able to do that, it will be a strong symbolic statement to offenders. 27 Jan. 09