Electronic waste landfill in Agbogbloshie

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Agbogbloshie and the Korle Lagoon (2005)
On the Agbogbloshie dump (2011)

The electronic waste dump in Agbogbloshie is located in the eponymous district of the metropolis of Accra in Ghana, West Africa . Located northwest of the main business district of Accra on the banks of the Korle Lagoon, 40,000 people live here on an area of ​​around 1,600 hectares (16 km²) of land. Agbogbloshie gained notoriety through the UNICEF winner photo from 2011 with the title: Ghana: Our trash in Africa by Kai Löffelbein . The picture symbolizes the effects of illegally imported electronic waste that originates from Europe . The unorganized and completely improper separation of the recyclable materials - among other things with the help of open fires - produces highly toxic fumes from the components. Because of this, the site was voted one of the worst polluted places in the world by the Blacksmith Institute in 2013 .

Poverty and environmental issues

Ghana itself does not suffer from drought disasters; There is enough food available. The unequal distribution alone is a problem. Compared to neighboring countries, it has even achieved relative prosperity. This is the reason for massive immigration, especially from northern regions. In addition, there is a pronounced migration from the countryside to the cities, which increases the unemployment rate there. For young people in particular, whose level of education is low, this often means a social decline into homelessness . Slum formation occurs with its typical side effects: diseases, prostitution , drug trafficking and crime.

Agbogbloshie's garbage dump is also polluted with a special form of environmental pollution : Millions of tons of electronic waste land here every year, which residents search for usable raw materials (mainly iron, aluminum and copper). For this purpose, the screens of televisions and computers are smashed with the simplest of tools and the phosphorus and cadmium present inside are released.

In addition, when electronic waste is disposed of, poisons such as mercury and arsenic can get into the ground.

To get to the inside, old foam is set on fire, which melts the plastic away. Valuable copper is obtained by burning the plastic sheathing of cables in open fires - a work mainly carried out by children and young people. Burning plastics can produce dioxins and chlorine , among other things . This form of air pollution is problematic not only due to absorption via the respiratory tract and skin, but also due to the contamination of the crops grown there. Dioxins settle on the surface of leaves and get into the food cycle. There is also an important vegetable market in the immediate vicinity of the garbage dump. Soil samples that Greenpeace examined showed lead concentrations that were in some cases 100 times higher than in uncontaminated soil. Exposure to cadmium and phthalates , which are used by industry as plasticizers for plastics, were also found. In addition, certain chemical residues can accumulate in animal fats that are ingested when eating fish, meat, eggs or dairy products.

Rivulets seep through the landfill, which is located in a former wetland, and contaminate the groundwater. It directs the toxins into the Odor River , which used to be rich in fish and has long since died. This water is used to water the vegetables in the adjacent fields. After barely a kilometer, the Odor flows into the Atlantic near the Korle lagoon (one of the most polluted waters on earth). If the fishermen cast their nets there, monitors and refrigerator parts increasingly get caught in them.

Consequences for health

Agbogbloshie (2012)

According to Mike Anane, a Ghanaian environmental journalist, you can spend a maximum of two hours on the Agbogbloshies rubbish dump without harming your health. Because of this and because of the high crime rate, the place is popularly called Sodom and Gomorrah . In the media, the place is sometimes referred to as Toxic City .

Its inhabitants live in shacks that they built from old boards and sheet metal. There is a lack of sanitary facilities as well as clean water. Everyday cuts and burns are caused by residents at work (often barefoot and without gloves).

The toxins pose a particular risk to children, as lead and cadmium are stored in the bone substance during the growth phase. The smoke causes immediate symptoms such as constant headaches, red eyes and insomnia. Later, amnesia, coughing up blood, and asthma can occur. In the long term, the development of the reproductive system, the brain or the nervous system can be influenced.

Chronic lead poisoning leads to slightly reduced intelligence and psychomotor deficits as well as slightly impaired kidney function in children from 100–200 µg / l in the blood. To encephalopathy occurs in adults from 1200 ug / L in children starting at 800-1000 ug / l. If left untreated, these pathological changes in the brain are often fatal in children and cause permanent neurological and neuropsychological damage in survivors. However, many children do not even reach the age of twenty - before that they die of cancer (e.g. leukemia), kidney failure or other diseases.

Illegally imported electronic waste

When the first containers with used computers arrived in Ghana in the mid-2000s, they were part of an aid program. But dubious dealers quickly misused the label “second-hand” to illegally export electronic waste - with serious consequences for the country.

For eight years now, Mike Anane has been fighting against illegally imported electronic waste. According to him, 80 percent of the used electrical equipment that ends up in Agbogbloshie is junk. But even functioning devices end up in the landfill at the end of their service life. Over the past six years, the amount of scrap from all over Europe, the USA, Canada and Australia has grown steadily. Yaw Amoyaw-Osei, founder of the environmental group Green Advocacy , confirms that a number of foreign traders are involved in e-waste imports and exports. The recyclable materials, on the other hand, which enable people to survive on the dump, are returned to manufacturers in Europe and America via intermediaries.

This approach by the industrialized countries violates the Basel Convention of 1989, which only Afghanistan, Haiti and the USA have not ratified. This is an international agreement that regulates environmentally friendly waste management and cross-border transport. Accordingly, garbage may only be imported into countries that have facilities for proper disposal.

Even the German Federal Environment Agency does not know who is involved in this illegal trade. It refers to individual dealers who drop defective devices in front of the recycling yards or collect them in free campaigns. However, Greenpeace tracked an inoperable television with a built-in tracking transmitter from a London recycling center to Nigeria. The BBC was also able to follow the path of a defective television set from a London street to Ghana. Similarly, a team of ARD telecast Panorama in collaboration with a research team of Follow the Money , recovery paths of several defective TV sets up to Accra track.

Movie

The documentary Welcome to Sodom by Christian Krönes and Florian Weigensamer describes the life of people in the electronic waste dump . The film was shown at the 2018 Munich Film Festival . It was released in theaters in August 2018. A report about the film that was shown on the program 10vor10 at the end of July prompted SWICO to lodge a complaint with the SRG ombudsman .

See also

literature

Web links

Commons : Agbogbloshie  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Top Ten Threats 2013.pdf of the Blacksmith Institute
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g h i Everything scrap - What the illegal electronic waste does in Ghana. on SWR2.
  3. ^ Hans Martens, Daniel Goldmann, Recyclingtechnik: reference book for teaching and practice P. 348ff Google Books
  4. ↑ a b c d e f g Geof Knight: Plastic Pollution.  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / books.google.ch  
  5. ↑ Kevin Riemer-Schadendorf: Give us your daily garbage today . In: Christian Barsch (Ed.): The big issues of our time . tape 27 . Frieling, Berlin, ISBN 978-3-8280-3487-7 , pp. 131-134 .
  6. ↑ Axel Bojanowski, DER SPIEGEL: UN study on electronic waste: Europe's poison contaminates playgrounds in Africa - DER SPIEGEL - Wissenschaft. Retrieved August 18, 2020 .
  7. ↑ EU electronic scrap ends up in African children's hands. on Golem IT news for professionals.
  8. ↑ Carolyn Braun, Marcus Pfeil, Felix Rohrbeck & Christian Salewski: Where do our junk televisions end up? In: Panorama . NDR / Das Erste , July 23, 2014, accessed on June 22, 2017 .
  9. ↑ http://future.arte.tv/de/giftige-geschaefte-mit-elektromuell#article-anchor-18766
  10. ^ Website of the film Welcome to Sodom
  11. ↑ Welcome to Sodom in the Internet Movie Database
  12. ^ Press booklet for Welcome to Sodom from Filminstitut.at
  13. ^ "10 to 10" post "Welcome to Sodom" objected to. In: srgd.ch . September 24, 2018, accessed December 2, 2018 .

Coordinates: 5 ° 33 '1.08 "  N , 0 ° 13' 33.6"  W.