Environmental Pollution:
Ghana’s E-waste Problem

By Jamila Akweley Okertchiri

Mohammed Suiad sits under the cab of a truck in the heart of Ghana’s biggest scrap yard, Agbogbloshie, with his friends, as he gets ready to burn a bundle of cables he managed to scavenge from discarded electronic gadgets.

After some minutes of joke-cracking, he stands and moves towards a spot where he sets his bundle on fire with the help of foam. Soon fumes from the burning cables engulf the young boy of about 20 years who stands concerned.
Another young scrap worker walks through the thick dark smoke emanating from the burning electronics and cables to ensure his metal is intact.
After several minutes of waiting for the fire to melt the plastic insulator, Iddrissu Inusah cools off the metal with water and collects it into a container.
“We burn the cables to get copper, which we sell for money,” says 19-year-old Iddrissu, who hails from the northern part of Ghana.
“We don’t have a specific amount for which we sell it,” Iddrissu added. “We take whatever the buyers give us, but if it weighs more than 100 kilograms, we get GH¢5.00”
Like Iddrissu, Mohammed earns GH¢5.00, most of which he sends to his parents up north.
Other boys of the same age as Mohammed and Iddrissu also burn wires to get copper in order to earn a living.
These children, together with scrap handlers, work in appalling conditions which constantly expose them and communities nearby to serious health and environmental hazards.
The burning process, in particular, releases toxic substances into the atmosphere, soils and bodies of water. This has serious health consequences, such as acute damage to the lungs as a result of inhalation of fumes from heavy metals, such as lead and cadmium.
“I know the fire is not good for our health,” Mohammed admits, “but, because of the money we get, we continue to stay here. We don’t like it, but we are working like that.”

Like most developing countries, Ghana does not have proper recycling facilities to manage the increasing influx of used electronics that are being imported into the country.
“There are no clear and specific national regulations that define, restrict or prohibit the importation of these ‘second hand equipment termed ‘e-waste’,” says this year’s Ghana E-Waste Country Assessment, written by SBC E-Waste Africa Project, an organization implemented under an international e-waste treaty.
“Given the absence of controls and regulations, e-waste enters the country under the guise of second-hand goods without restriction or detection.”
Thus it has become an open and ready source of employment and point of entry for economic migrants, usually with no education and employable skills.
Michael Bush, a Nigerian in his late twenties, sits under a shed as he sorts out computer chips which he finds across the length and breadth of the country. He has worked as a scrap exporter at Agbogbloshie for five years.
“I export from 500 to 1000 kilograms of computer chips to Germany and United States of America,” says Michael. “When the computer chips are exported to these countries, the valuable metals are extracted through melting of the chips.”
He noted, however, that the business is not lucrative.
“You can suffer to sort out the valuable metals you want, and after shipment you will get about 20% to 40% of the money spent.”

The informal nature of the business has also prevented workers from learning about the associated risks, in order to organize and seek social protection and benefits to improve working conditions.
“I don’t know about any new legislation governing what we do here,” Mohammed says.
Laws and Regulations
The 1992 Constitution of Ghana spells out the fundamentals for the protection of the environment.
Economic Development Act 36 (9) states, “The State shall take appropriate measures needed to protect and safeguard the national environment for posterity; and shall seek co-operation with other states and bodies for the purposes of protecting the wider international environment for mankind.”
Furthermore, clause 10 of the same Act quotes, “The State shall safeguard the health, safety and welfare of all persons in employment, and shall establish the basis for the full deployment of the creative potential of all Ghanaians.”
However, government is yet to pass its own law to restrict the importation of e-waste as well as regulate its disposal.
The Minister of Environment, Science and Technology, Ms. Sherry Ayittey, in recent media reportage has said Parliament is on the verge of passing the Environmental Bill into law. But just like other bills, parliament is processing, the environment bill will have to wait.
Internationally, Ghana has signed onto numerous international agreements related to harmful pollution. Some, like the Vienna Convention on the Protection of the Ozone Layer and the Montreal Protocol of Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer, require the country to make research contributions.
Others, like Rio Declaration on Environment and Development and the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation on Environment and Development, call on Ghana to develop in an environmentally sustainable way.
In 2005, Ghana signed the Basel Convention Control of Transboundary Movement of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposals. The agreement aims at minimizing the generation of hazardous waste, reducing its movement, and ensuring that it is disposed of as close to its origins as possible.
According to SBC E-Waste Africa Project, an organization implemented under the Basel secretariat’s framework, these laws go largely un-enforced.
In 1994, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Act was passed, and the EPA was tasked with prescribing standards and guidelines surrounding toxic waste. The EPA is also responsible for control, generation, treatment, storage, transportation and disposal of industrial waste. Finally, a section of the act gave birth to the Hazardous Chemicals Committee.
Despite multiple phone calls, a letter of information request, and a trip to its headquarters in Accra, EPA communications staff declined to make a source available for interview until well after this story’s deadline.

Job Creation
Self-help Initiative Support Services (SISS), a Ghanaian skills training NGO funded by Comic Relief from the UK, through its Urban Lifeline Project, recruits young people from the scarp yard and slums and gives them training in bead-making, hair-dressing and computer literacy.
Shirazu Yussif, 28, is a beneficiary of last year’s SISS training modules. His life has improved economically as he now holds a set of car keys and a cell phone.

“As soon as I finished my computer classes, I said, ‘What can I do?’ I cannot put it down. I have to achieve something.

“(SISS) brought me two computers, and I put them inside the shop and started lecturing people there.”

Nonetheless, Mohammed and Iddrisssu have not heard of either Yussif or SISS. And they don’t necessarily believe outsiders who come into their community to talk about such opportunities.

“No one has come here with that offer,” says Mohammed. “Even if they come, they don’t tell us the truth. It’s been three years now that some people came to tell us that they will open a company here but they did not return.”

The government, meanwhile, has pledged to assist with skills development. Speaking at a recent conference to explore the employment picture of Agbogbloshie, Asante, Ibrahim Murtala, Deputy National Coordinator with the National Youth Employment Program (NYEP), in charge of communications invited SISS to submit a proposal.

“The NYEP is more than willing to assist once you submit a proposal and that proposal is convincing,” he said. “And I don’t think with the work you are doing, we can’t work together.”

He also outlined a cross-section of programming he said reaches thousands of young Ghanaians.

“Some are given paid internships in government offices, an opportunity that gives them an advantage in a national job market that demands work experience for gainful employment.”

He said others have found work with the police services, while those with more significant educational challenges have been placed with road maintenance crews.

Solutions
“Both past and present governments have shown little interest in improving social conditions in the slum,” said NYEP Program Manager Yaw Asante.

Meanwhile, Ghanaian family structures put an additional strain on the situation. Many young people are sent to Accra by their families. Asante calls this a mandate. When SISS approaches them with training opportunities, they are often unable to make a decision.

“When we approach people, they say they came to Accra to make money,” he said. “Therefore, they have to go back home to the north or from wherever they are from and get a new mandate.”

Government has however given a strong warning to countries which use Ghana as their dumping sites. But is this enough assurance that our environment will be protected?