IVORY COAST: Seven die and more than 23,000 people seek hospital treatment after toxic waste dumped in capital city

The Health Ministry said on Friday (September 15) that seven people had died from inhaling noxious fumes after toxic waste was dumped in open-air sites in the capital Abidjan. More than 23,000 people have sought treatment at hospitals for vomiting, nausea and breathing difficulties. Pandy Messou, one of the doctors at the hospital, said they generally got better after treatment. "We look at the patient to see the evolution in all the symptoms they have, then we prescribe them drugs and calculate how much to give them. After they take their medicines and they come back to be see us again, they generally say they feel better," said Messou. One of his patients, Zadi Dally, complained of breathing difficulties. "I had a dry cough in the morning but later on in the evening I started to cough up mucus, and then I noticed I was coughing up blood," said Dally. Foreign experts brought in to test the viscous substance, unloaded from a Panamanian-registered ship at Abidjan port last month, have said it appeared to contain hydrogen sulphide, which can be deadly in high concentrations. Ivorian authorities have arrested seven Ivorians and one Nigerian in connection with the dumping of the waste, which was deposited in open-air sites around the city. A leading international commodities trader, Dutch-based Trafigura Beheer BV, said it chartered the ship which unloaded the waste. It described the substance unloaded as slops, a "mixture of gasoline, water and caustic washings". The company has said it advised the Ivorian authorities that the slops needed to be disposed of correctly. In a meeting with French experts, Banny was given the results of a French investigation into the chemicals that have caused the illness. One of the experts, Colonel Franoz, described the after effects of the substances on the human body. "The toxic products causing this are the type that react immediately, but they do not accumulate or concentrate in the body," Franoz said. Ivorian Prime Minister Charles Konan Banny said late on Thursday (September 14) a French company, Tredi International, would begin to remove the waste from Sunday (September 17) and he said the government was working to have it sent abroad. Banny said inquiries would be conducted to find out how the waste was dumped, and four senior officials, including the heads of Abidjan port and the customs service, had been suspended. Banny said tap water remained safe to drink but fishing had been banned in the Abidjan lagoon and livestock near the sites where the black sludge was dumped was being observed. Gathering of silage growing near the sites was also banned and market gardens near the sites would be destroyed and compensation paid, Banny said. An unidentified woman was angry at the consequences of the pollution on children in the area. "We know that the lagoon has been contaminated, and because of this also the sea is contaminated, which also means that the fish our children eat are contaminated," she said. Demonstrators, on Friday (September 15), protesting against the dumping of the toxic waste attacked and beat up Transport Minister Innocent Kobenan Anaky, an aide said. The attack reflected mounting popular anger over the poisonous waste dumped last month. Public outcry forced the resignation of Banny's cabinet last week injecting more uncertainty into the war-divided West African state, tangling the political outlook for the world's top cocoa producer.

ITN Source | September 16, 2006

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