Ghana: Toxic Computer Waste
Length: 9'00''
00'02
Ships run every day in the port of Accra unloading their illegal cargo.
What doesn't work in Europe will land here: Tons of old televisions, computers, e-waste. The Africans are very eager to outdated technology. No one cares that the import of waste is prohibited.
00'25
With street vendors we find the things again. Whether it is after a long journey from work it depends. But the business is doing well.
00'36
OT Computer Seller 1, no insert
Many people can not afford new equipment. And companies such as Sony or Panasonic do not produce here.
00'43
Everything, to the iron is imported.
00'46
OT Computer Seller 2, no insert
In this country the new devices come mostly from China and this is not great quality. The used goods from Europe are, however, quite in order.
00'58
Open
01'00
So all right, however, not everything in Africa is unloaded. Around three quarters of all electrical appliances are scrap, and according to the law they would actually have to be recycled in Europe. But this is expensive. A computer to be recycled in Austria costs around 25 euros. In Ghana, it is free. And the scrap dealers are pleased with the scrap metal.
01'27
OT recycling, no insert
We take the copper and aluminum from the equipment and sell it on. Some companies then export it abroad. These are commodities that are traded worldwide. Thus, we make our business.
01'45
Open
01'48
The black smoke that darkened the sun, tells us that the electronics recyclers are in work. It is a Hellfire from dioxin and furan vapors, the man takes the breath. To participate in the copper access; the young men burn away the plastic shells of the cable. The sale of the metal is converted to 5 euros a day.
02'18
Open
02'22
Fire accelerators use tires and CFC-containing foam. The boys want to increase their yields, especially since the prices of copper are at its lowest.
02'33
OT recycling, no insert
Yes, if we burn, cable, I then sometimes get headaches and my whole body hurts.
02'43
Open
02'47
OT recycling, no insert
I might stop, but many others cannot. We all live here for this work. That is our business.
03'00
A few meters away from the fire, we are witnessing the madness of this African microcosm. The junior football club soccer talent trained in the haze of the poison cloud. Nobody had the idea to relocate the football pitch. When the e-waste came, they simply stayed.
03'20
Open
03'22
Even the residents around the scrap yard at this location remained miserable. Many now live on electronic waste. The elders send the children to the contaminated tailings to help family income increase. There also goes Sarah Bempah. The hairdresser who lives primarily by the beauty of the slum dwellers. But those earnings are not enough for all. Therefore, Haareglätten sends three of their four sons as scrap collectors on the heap.
03'54
OT Emmanuel Bempah, scrap collector, 14 years
In the morning I go to school, then to the scrap yard to find metals. I need the money because I need to buy food.
04'05
OT Bempah Sarah, mother
The work on the scrap heap is not for children. They come home absolutely filthy and their clothes are shredded. I always tell them they should watch, but they do not listen.
04'21
Open
04'23
So it looks if Europe suggests the digital divide between the First and Third World countries is to conclude.
04'33
Children, some only seven years old, dig with bare hands in glass shards for something like copper or aluminum. They do not know that the soil is highly contaminated by mercury, arsenic and brominated flame retardants, up to 100-fold over normal values.
04'52
A 12-year-old has been at the breaking of a monitor geschnitten. He is accustomed, he tells us.
04'59
Open
05'04
Especially tricky is the highly toxic lead from the old CRT monitors of which are tons lying around. Up to two kilos of lead found in each such device. Children, like Emmanuel, with permanent nerve damage caused by the poison will have to live with. And all this for pittance.
05'29
OT Emmanuel Bempah, scrap collector, 14 years
I do not particularly like to take the computer apart. Sometimes I beat the older guys. They claim that I had stolen the metal and take my own stuff away.
05'44
The government in Ghana is through such images allarmiert. In early April the Dutch Environment Ministry pledged to increase the cargo of vessels because the bulk of the computer comes from Rotterdam.
06'00
OT Mike Anane, environmental journalist
Many Europeans think that sending computers to Africa is good for the continent's technology and moving forward. However, the truth is, that computer has a "digital divide". Africa has no use of these obsolete computers because they are highly discarded material from Europe, but they may as well start from there.
06'34
Open
06'36
The Europeans continue to diligently send their old computers and monitors. It is getrickste because law prohibits the export. Only second-hand goods that are still functioning properly can be exported to Africa. But the check is almost impossible.
06'56
Therefore, the Austrian Christina Schroeder Südwind in Ghana based on inventory numbers, which can be read, researches if the computers also arrive here from Austria. The development of political organization, calls for a worldwide warranty by computer manufacturers that will be properly recycled.
07'20
OT Christina Schroeder, Südwind
GERMAN
07'56
The impact on people, the environment and animals is not yet in sight. But one thing is certain: The poison is not in Africa. It comes to us.
08'09
OT Mike Anane, environmental journalist
The contaminated water is on the lagoons and rivers into the sea transports. That lands the poison on fish. These are the fish that not only Africans but also Europeans eat. The fish, by the poisoned e-waste is landing on our dinner table, no matter where we live.
08'29
Open
08'31
Ghana's coast is one of the richest fishing areas in the world. At the of the vicious circle electronic waste also affected the Europeans, because it has found a way, back to its origins.
Posted: Patrick A. Hafner
Camera: Albert Owusu
Editor: Thomas Rützler