BAMAKO CONVENTION AND GOOD

MANAGEMENT OF HAZARDOUS WASTES: A CASE FOR SUSTAINABLE

DEVELOPMENTBy

Kwadwo Tutu, ECA.

What is the Convention?

• The ban of the import into Africa and the Control of Transboundary movement and management of hazardous wastes within Africa.

• Convention adopted by 51 African Countries at the Conference of Environment Ministers in Bamako, Mali, on January 30, 1991.

• Came into force in 22 April 1998. Only AU countries can become party to the Convention.

The Principle

• The principle is based on the Basel Convention which regulates the movement of wastes between countries and ensures sound management and disposal of wastes.

Why Was it Adopted

• Basel Convention was not doing enough

• A stronger message needed

• Why then has all adopting countries not ratified?

Rationale for Convention

• millions of tonnes of hazardous wastes produced every year.

• These wastes pose direct threat to the environment and human beings due to its toxic, eco-toxic, flammable, corrosive and/or infectious properties.

Objectives

• Protect human health and the environment from dangers posed by hazardous wastes by reducing their generation to a minimum in terms of quantity and /or hazard potential

• Adopt precautionary measures and ensure proper disposal of hazardous waste

• Prevent ‘dumping’ of hazardous wastes in Africa

What is the Precautionary Principle?

• It states that a preventive regulatory actions in regards to environmental protection should be taken even in the absence of a conclusive scientific proof that a given substance or activity harms the environment.

• Baender (1991) feels that all Conventions on the control of hazardous wastes must be based on this Precautionary Principle since some of these are based on the—voluntary arrangements guided by the prior informed consent (PIC).

Status of Participation

• As of May 12, 2004, 28 countries with 21 ratifying.

• Conference of Parties not met. No Secretariat.

• The AU is acting as a depositary.

Signatory Countries

• Benin, Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, Libya, Mali, Niger, Senegal, Tanzania, Togo, Tunisia, Comoros, Kenya, Liberia, Madagascar, Sierra Leone, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Central African Republic, Chad, Djibouti, Egypt, Ghana, Guinea Bissau, Guinea, Lesotho, Rwanda, Swaziland, Somalia.

Countries Ratifying

• Benin, Cameroon, Congo, Cote d’Ivoire, Dem. Rep. of Congo, Gambia, Libya, Mali, Mauritius, Mozambique, Niger, Senegal, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Ethiopia, Central African Republic, Chad.

• Ethiopia and Gambia have ratified but not signed.

Key Provisions

• Parties obliged to prohibit the import of all hazardous wastes, for any reason, into Africa from non-contracting Parties.

• Categories of wastes listed in Annex I and Annex II. • Any waste considered hazardous by domestic laws of

either the state of import, export or transit.• Radioactive wastes, industrial wastes, sewage and

sewage sludge prohibited.

DEFINITIONS

• What is Waste? • Any substance which should be disposed of or that has

been disposed of.

• Main types include industrial, domestic, hospital and commercial wastes.

• Virtually all production processes or human activities produce waste which could hazardous or not.

Hazardous Waste

• Hazardous waste is any substance representing a threat to human health or the biophysical environment. The wastes should not be released into the environment or put down the sewer, or disposeof in ordinary landfills.

• High levels of hazardous wastes in Africa are generated from agriculture, industry mining and household activities.

• Examples of wastes specified in the Convention include clinical wastes, pharmaceutical wastes, mineral oils and compounds such as copper, lead and zinc.

Transboundary Movement of Hazardous Waste

•  Refers to any translocation of hazardous wastes from one state to another including its water and air space.

• Transboundary movements of hazardous wastes taken place between industrialized countries and Africa for some time.

• Schemes of hazardous waste shipment and attempted shipment have been revealed in Botswana, Gabon, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa, Senegal, Zanzibar and Zimbabwe.

Examples of Wastes Imports

• The Greenpeace, the World Bank and other organizations have revealed a number of hazardous wastes import deals into Africa.

• South Africa is only in Africa that allowed imports of foreign waste.

• In South Africa, 120 drums of mercury-contaminated wastes imported from the USA annually since 1986 (CEPFS 19, 2004).

Economic Rationale and History of Importation of Hazardous Waste into

Africa

Average Cost of Disposal (US$)1980 1988

Cost of tonne of waste dump inUSA land filles 15 250Incineration cost 1,000 1,500Disposal Cost in Africa 2.50 26

• Significant incentives for chemical companies to dispose the waste in Africa.

• Hence African Stockpile Program recommending incineration

Examples of willingness to dump

• Number of USA companies seeking approval from the USA Environmental Protection Agency to ship toxic waste to developing countries, especially Africa in 1980 was 12

• Number of companies in 1988 increased to 522

Impacts of Hazardous Wastes

• Physical and chemical injury or disease.

• Human exposure to hazardous wastes may cause rashes, burns, illness or poisoning.

• Long-term effects include lung diseases, cancer mental retardation and genetic disorder.

• Long-term effects are usually caused by hazardous metals such as lead, mercury, copper and zinc.

Other Effects

• The biophysical environmental pollution by hazardous wastes may degrade as well as reduce resources available from human use, for example agricultural or residential land, water, vegetation and wildlife.

• These serious effects make Convention very important

Why Convention significant for Sustainable Development (SD):

• SD is development that meets the needs of the present generation without comprising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

• It is development that places human beings at the center of things. • Agenda 21 from the Rio Conference is the instrument for addressing sustainable development.

• . The WSSD and its JPOI (also reinforced it) called on regional commissions to facilitate and promote a balanced integration of the economic, social and environmental dimensions of sustainable development into their work program (UN, 2003).

•  • The UN has noted that in order for countries to achieve SD, they must pursue the four pillars of SD, that is economic, social, environmental

and institutional. Thus achieving SD calls for a partnership between the four pillars.•  • Why Convention will promote SD•  • The health and biophysical impacts will reduce welfare and economic growth, will negatively hamper the environment and impair the ability

of future economic growth and well being of the people. Hence will negatively affect SD of countries. Hence the importance of the convention/s.

•  •  •  •  •  • Hence ratifying Convention is not just fulfilling a requirement from the AU or UN or from Crazy Environmentalists. You are

securing the sustainable development of your countries.

Operationalisation of SD

• The WSSD and its JPOI also reinforced it.  

• The UN has noted that in order for countries to achieve SD, they must pursue the four pillars of SD, that is economic, social, environmental and institutional.

Why Convention will promote SD

The health and biophysical impacts will reduce

• welfare and economic growth

• negatively hamper the environment

• impair the ability of future economic growth and well being of the people.

• negatively affect SD of countries. Hence the importance of the convention/s.

Conclusion

• Ratifying Convention is not just fulfilling a requirement from the AU or UN or from Crazy Environmentalists.

• You are securing the sustainable development of your countries.

THANK YOU