Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
language of Mozambique is Portuguese. One local activist remembered
that “only a few of us could manage to read the report and . . . do a
brief analysis” (Lemos 2004). Connett denounced the entire project. He
stated: “In the United States or Canada, those proposing a new toxic
waste facility would be obliged to fully discuss all of the alternatives, all
of the risks, and would have been required to hold several public hear-
ings before decisions could be made about a particular disposal method.
The environmental assessment and public involvement in this project is
a sham” (Puckett 1998, 25). For its part, Danida conducted an EIA that
concluded no serious environmental impacts would result from the incin-
eration of the pesticides (Mangwiro 1999).
The visiting activists also informed the Mozambican citizens of the
questionable record of Waste-Tech Ltd., a South African fi rm that was
to be contracted for the Danida effort. At that time, Waste-Tech Ltd.
was seeking to import foreign waste into South Africa—a clear violation
of the law there—and was the subject of an investigation by the South
African Human Rights Commission concerning possible abuses in the
case of two incinerators it had located in close proximity to an economi-
cally depressed community. The fi rm was also confronted with other
legal investigations being conducted by the South African Department
of Water Affairs and Forestry.
Mauricio Sulila, one of the local community leaders from Maputo
present at the meeting, later told a reporter: “When we explained [to
others attending the gathering] that the government had decided
the factory would burn toxic waste, they became terrifi ed” (Lowe 2003).
Local people already suspected the presence of toxic materials at the
site because, as Sulila recalled, earlier fl ooding in the area prompted
residents to pump the water into a nearby swamp where, soon afterward,
“someone ate a fi sh caught in this swamp and died” (Lowe 2003). The
terror that people experienced at the news of a toxic threat underscores
risk society theorists' fi ndings that the dangers of modern industrial
pollutants often instill fear and dread among exposed communities
(Erikson 1995).
At the meeting with U.S. and South African activists, local residents
and community leaders founded an organization to address the problem
of environmental hazards in the area. Mr. Mazul, one of the attendees
who was also an artist, explained that, since the citizens had been kept
in the dark by the Danish and Mozambican authorities at the Environ-
ment Ministry, the group should be named
Livaningo
, which translates
to “all that sheds light” in Shangaan, one of many languages spoken in
