Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
A Toxic Discovery: Mozambique as a Risk Society
In 1998, in Maputo, community activist Janice Lemos read a story in
Metical
—an independent local newspaper—about Danida's effort to
fund the incineration of obsolete toxic fertilizer and pesticide stocks in
a cement factory in the southern city of Matola. Danida sought to donate
a hazardous waste incineration facility that would be housed in the
cement factory, which the aid agency would also pay to have retrofi tted
for the operation. Ms. Lemos wrote to the newspaper for more informa-
tion about the cement kiln incinerator proposal, but none was available.
She then contacted Greenpeace International's headquarters in the Neth-
erlands, where someone informed her that two U.S.-based antitoxics
activists would soon be visiting South Africa, and they might be able to
travel to Maputo and Matola if Mozambican community leaders would
invite them. With the help of Greenpeace and Oxfam Community Aid
Abroad, Lemos and fellow concerned residents met with the U.S. activists
Ann Leonard (then with the group Essential Action) and Paul Connett
(a St. Lawrence University chemistry professor and renowned expert
on and opponent of incineration), as well as with Bobby Peek, a South
African toxics expert and activist (with the Environmental Justice
Networking Forum).
The visiting activists were quite concerned because they possessed
documentation that cement kiln incinerators produce a range of deadly
toxins such as dioxins and furans. In fact, scientists estimate that 23
percent of the world's newly created dioxin comes from cement kiln
incinerators alone (Puckett 1998). Prior to their arrival, the visiting activ-
ists were able to access documents about Danida's plans and had addi-
tional information about the proposed project. EJNF's Bobby Peek
stated, “Whether or not anybody actually became concerned about the
issue . . . we strongly felt that we had the moral obligation to pass on
what we knew about the plan, and the real risks of cement kiln incinera-
tion. They had the right to know. As we feared, almost nobody had heard
about the project at all” (Puckett 1998, 25). This lack of public knowl-
edge was particularly disturbing because Danida has a policy of “actively
involving individuals, non-governmental organizations and associations
and businesses formally and informally in formulating and implementing
environmental policies” (Neilsen 1999). Yet few people in Maputo or
Matola had heard anything about the project from Danida. In fact, the
foreign visitors were the
only
people at the meeting who had seen a copy
of the short environmental impact assessment (EIA) Danida had pre-
pared. Moreover, the report was written in English, although the offi cial
