POPs IN AFRICA HAZARDOUS WASTE TRADE 1980 - 2000 ... - Arte

exist in the country.” 47
In November 1999, GTZ specialists visited a warehouse in
Garoua in the North province of Cameroon and saw “about 1,000
litres of Dieldrin”. 48
Trade in Obsolete
Pesticides: A Greenpeace investigation carried out in October 2000
concentrated on the obsolete pesticide stockpiles listed by FAO
in Cameroon. The three storage sites in question were found in
Kumba and Bafoussam, in the rural west of the country. In
Kumba, two storage sites were inspected and documented
together with the responsible officials.
Both the government officials of the South West Development
Authority (SOWEDA) and staff of the South West Farmers
Cooperative (SOWEFCO) state that the substances listed by
FAO have not been disposed of.
Instead, they were moved out of the central storage sites in 1998
to make way for new deliveries. In the course of a privatization
wave that took place at the same time, the formerly governmentowned
stocks were distributed to unknown destinations. It is
from these private depots that the market continues to be supplied
to this day with obsolete pesticides.
On 8 October, 2000 in Bafoussam, the Greenpeace team was able
to document at a dealer a recently emptied 50-litre drum (PCP
and Lindane) and a full, sealed, 25-litre canister containing
Lindane. Two 50-gram sachets containing outdated Lindane
powder were purchased as evidence.
New stockpiles
accumulating? In Kumba, the storage administrator complained that he had been
delivered excessive amounts of pesticides from Europe and
North America, some of which could not be distributed in time
(i.e. before the expiry date) to clients.
In late 1998, five annual deliveries for a project designed to
extend over seven years suddenly arrived in one consignment in
the Cameroonian port of Douala. On government instructions,
they had to be secured at great cost, transported to Kumba and
stored there. The project was run by a consortium of companies
and the central government of Cameroon in Yaoundé, in
collaboration with the African Development Bank (ADB).
Even this logistical task could not be mastered adequately. First
of all, obsolete pesticide stocks had to be moved out in order to
47
Global Crop Protection Federation (GCPF): Disposal of Obsolete Crop Protection Products: Country Progress
Reports, January 2001 ( = GCPF 2001)
48
GTZ in interview with Greenpeace Nov.2000
33