It 's the biggest scandal about toxic waste dump of the 21st century, the kind of environmental vandalism which is supposed to prevent international treaties exist. Now Newsnight can reveal the truth about a load of waste that was illegally brought in the biggest city Côte d'Ivoire, Abidjan. A huge corporation was summoned to 'High Court in London by thousands of Africans who claim to have been damaged as a result.
Our investigations have led us to Amsterdam, where the load of toxic waste could be disposed of safely. Instead, the company Trafigura has chosen the option to download economic Abidjan.
The Trafigura has always denied that the cargo is dangerous but we have seen chemical analysis of the Dutch authorities that prove to be lethal.
We consulted an eminent toxicologist, John Hoskins of the Royal Society of Chemistry. Us said that such a load would be enough to cripple a large city.
load of toxic waste that includes tons of phenol can cause death to contact tons of hydrogen sulphide, lethal if inhaled in high concentrations and large amounts of caustic and corrosive mercaptans, John Hoskins describes as "the compounds more smelly chemicals ever produced. "
A terrible smell
E 'success August 19, 2006, in the middle of the night. A convoy of trucks a company based in Abidjan as soon as he arrived to pick up waste from the ship. They got rid of the illegal cargo in the first great Aqueduto landfill.
A terrible stench was soon saturated the area. The operators of the landfill have been recalled and have driven the truck drivers. They have also sought other places to drop the load, spilling at least 18 places around the city and its surroundings.
The landfill Acquedo stretches as far as the eye can reach. While a dozen garbage truck spill their cargo, an army of the inhabitants of Abidjan accumulates around among their children, brandishing long iron spikes. Rummage in the trash, looking for anything that can be sold.
Dead
We were surrounded by people, only two were willing to talk about the night he was dumped toxic waste and the terrible smell that prevented him from breathing, and made them sick and ill.
Just outside the landfill we met Jean Francois Kouadio Fidel and his wife.
was eight months pregnant with her first child when the fumes had invaded their home. Fidel had a premature birth and the child, Jean Claude, died in less than a day.
Their second daughter loves Grace was born a year later. She too fell ill.
The doctors said that Ama Grace "was suffering from an acute blood glucose caused by toxic waste."
They could not do anything for her and died.
Medical reports say a "strong possibility" that the deaths of two babies have been caused by exposure to toxic and Jean Francois Fidel and now fear that they will never become parents.
polluted waters
We also visited the village in Djibouti, just outside of Abidjan. The waste discharged into the water supply are over here, killing all the fish that fed on the village.
The village chief of Djibouti, Esai MoDT, told us that all the people here, to the end, you are sick, two thousand people:
"There were women who had abortions, and this was very painful. But even worse was that three people, two adults and a girl were killed by toxic waste. This was really terrible. "
What happened then which led to such a disaster in a nation that in 2006, was still struggling to get out of a civil war?
The waste was produced as a result of an oil contract, involving three continents. The Trafigura bought a load of cheap oil, dirt and heavy, with a high sulfur content. Instead of working in a refinery, the Trafigura tried to clean it up, using the methods do-it-yourself, so that it can sell to maximize profit.
They used a ship called the Probo Koala docked off Gibraltar as a simple refinery. Caustic soda and a catalyst were added to the oil that reacts with the sulphides have settled on the bottom of the tank.
"Stink, but not dangerous"
The Probo Koala sailed to Amsterdam where they attempted to download the sulphurous tar waste were normal as cleaning the ship, which would cost a few thousand euro.
However, the fumes were so powerful that they were called emergency services and the Dutch authorities conducted inspections. They found that the load was highly toxic to Trafigura said it would cost half a million euro disposed of safely.
The Probo Koala, instead of following this path, put the waste on board and took off to finish on the east coast of Africa.
Marietta Harjo, Greenpeace Netherlands tells us that this has led to a criminal proceeding by the Dutch authorities for "falsification of documents - have deliberately concealed the nature of toxic waste", as well as for the illegal importation of toxic and "Illegal export of waste Ivory Coast toxic to Europe. "
When Newsnight investigated for the first time about the scandal of toxic waste in 2007, a founder of Trafigura, Eric de Turkheim, Jeremy Paxman said: "These substances were not dangerous to human health. They were stinky but not dangerous. "
Today, new investigations show that Newsnight was far from reality.
The Trafigura continues to deny any wrongdoing.
Original title: "Calling all bloggers - Help beat the gag on the BBC"
Source: http://richardwilsonauthor.wordpress.com
Selected and translated by PAUL www.comedonchisciotte.org CASTELLETTI
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