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

of one million Deutschmarks (over USD 600,000) per month.
A German firm, Schaal and Mueller, would have collected and
packed the wastes. Shipping offers were made by a Soviet stateowned
firm in Frankfurt, Transnautic.
The contract was to be signed on June 15, 1988, in Nouakchott,
Mauritania. However, this signing was prevented by the
reorganization of the Mauritanian government.
After further S.O.P. waste trade projects became public (see also
Morocco), S.O.P. manager Otto Blosch said he would change
business and become an advertising and estate agent. 127
For more information on a related scheme, please see Morocco
and Western Sahara.
Obsolete Pesticides: In Mauritania there were altogether 297 tonnes of obsolete
pesticides stored in 11 different locations, “mainly for locust
control“.
The following substances were identified, among others:
Dieldrin, Lindane. 128
127Documents obtained by Greenpeace, 1988.
175 tonnes of “Dieldrin” produced by the Dutch branch of Shell
during past decades were sent to Holland for incineration.
Near the town of Ayoun el Atrous a stockpile of 78,000 litres (78
tonnes) of the insecticide started leaking and contaminated the
soil. During 1994, GTZ started a immediate action and
safeguarded 28 000 litres of Dieldrin.
1997 GTZ and DRAP, the Plant Protection Department of
Mauritania, carried out a disposal operation and safeguarded 175
tonnes of Dieldrin and collected thousands of empty pesticide
drums (50 tonnes) from the whole country. GTZ shipped 225
tonnes of the waste to AVR’s waste incinerator in Rotterdam.
The project costs were fully covered by the German ministry for
Economic Co-operation and Development (BMZ).
Later, Shell paid the cost for the transport and the incineration
which were 37,5% of the whole operation. 129
However GCPF gives, again, a different impression: “In August
2000, around 30 tonnes of contaminated sand were removed
from the former Dieldrin store in the town of Rosso, in a joint
project involving the same collaborators. The sand was taken to
the Netherlands for decontamination. The operation was paid by
Shell, and carried out in collaboration of Shell, GTZ-Mauritania
and AVR. 130
The fate of the remaining obsolete pesticides is still unclear.
128 FAO 1999,2001
129 GTZ letter to Andreas Bernstorff, Greenpeace Germany , GTZ-Report 1998
130 GCPF 2001
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