Nigeria: Electronic Waste – An Emerging Silent Killer
By Emeka Umejei: Shout-Africa Nigerian Correspondent, Lagos – Nigerians are fast catching up with information and communication technology (ICT) euphoria sweeping across the world. It has become a fad to own a phone, computer etc. In fact it is difficult to find a Nigerian adult who doesn’t own a phone. As the phone bug catches on, so also does the computer bug. Owning laptops, computers is a new way to define social status in Nigeria. But the truth is that the economic pang in the country has made fairly used phones and computers the choice of many Nigerians.
Hence, as the craze for ICT reaches astronomical heights, it also exposes Nigerians to hazards that emanate from electronic wastes.
Hence, as the ICT fad catches on with Nigerians, the risk of electronic wastes also notches up daily.
But one of the most intriguing aspect is that majority of Nigerians are ignorant of the pollution associated with fairly used electronics gadgets.
Most of the fairly used computers and phones are mostly those rejected overseas or thrown overboard for one defect or another. But in Nigeria they find usefulness among an economically disadvantaged majority.
Electronics industry is the world’s largest and fastest growing manufacturing industry. Hence, discarded electronics or e-waste is generally recognized to be the fastest growing waste stream in the industrialized world. According to United Nation Environmental Programme (UNEP), 20 to 50 million tons of electrical and electronics equipment waste are generated world- wide.
According to Nigeria Communication Commission (NCC) statistics in its Monthly Telecoms subscriber data of June 2011, there are a total of 102,435,532 GSM lines, 12,052,323 CDMA phone lines and 2,162,191 fixed wireless/wireless phones lines in the country. The NCC report put the total telephone lines in the country at 116,650,046. According to the report, Nigeria has a tele-density of f 64.67.
According to The Basel Action Network report of 2005,entitled Digital Dump,exporting Re-use and Abuse to Africa, an estimated 500 containers of used computers scrap of various states of condition and age enter Nigeria each month. Each container contains about 800 computers monitors which amounts to about 400,000 each month.
The implication is that a majority of Nigerians are exposed to pollution from fairly used phones, computers etc.
Electronic waste may be defined as discarded computers, office electronic equipment, entertainment device electronics, mobile phones, television sets and refrigerators. This definition includes used electronics which are destined for reuse, resale, salvage, recycling, or disposal.
Some electronic scrap components such as CRTs are known to contain contaminants such as lead,cadmium, beryllium, mercury and brominated flame retardants.
In keeping with the new fad in ICT, various ICT markets have emerged over the years but the popular Computer Village,Ikeja ,Lagos stands tall. It is the centre of anything ICT in Nigeria. Ikeja computer village is both central and attractive. It is about 6 hectares of land with over 400 hundred registered businesses. People come from every nook and cranny of the country to buy computers, phones and their parts in the market. On a good day, computer village ,iKeja is a beehive of activities. Also to support the growing ICT craze, other computer villages have been created various parts of Lagos state.
There is one on the Island which caters to the upwardly mobile located on Saka Tinubu in Victoria Island ,Lagos. Victoria Island is where all the banks and big business have their corporate headquarters in Nigeria. Computer villages have also been replicated in the hinterland of the state to cater to locals who may want to purchase phones, computers or fix either. Egbeda,a suburb of Lagos in Akowonjo Local government area also houses one and the other is situated by airport bus stop close to Oshodi ,another suburb in Isolo Local Government area of the state.
In a bid to know if Nigerians have an idea of the health and pollution risk associated with these phones, computers Daily Independent visited the four markets and spoke to sellers, buyers, technicians and operators alike.
The encounter was both revealing and captivating as it showed that many are ignorant of electronic waste. At computer village Ikeja, Daily Independent spoke to the two biggest phone dealers in the market, SLOT and REVIVE. Though both firms claim to stock brand new phones they, they neither have an idea of electronic waste nor disposable mechanism.
Femi Aluko, business Development Manager of REVIVE , told Daily Independent that he does not know anything about electronic waste but what he knows is that if any of his phones are faulty it will be returned to the manufacturers who replaces it.
Asked whether there is anything as recycling or any disposal strategy, Femi says it is non-existent to his understanding.
AT SLOT Daily Independent spoke to one Patrick Egbulefu who is a manager and his response tallies with Femi.
“ All i know is that we don’t sale fake phones. What we do is that we return faulty phones to the manufacturers who know how to dispose them ,” Egbulefu told Daily Independent.
However, Daily Independent decided to go further into the market to speak to technicians who repair phones, computers and laptops. The noticeable trend is that there is no technician that has lead coat or gloves; they all work with their bare hands.
Endurance Azekhe,a phone technician says e-waste is a Western idea. “I know about electronic waste but it is God that protects. As an African man we don’t reckon with those kind of issues,it only affects western people,” Azekhe said firmly.
Another computer technician, lucky Iruele says he is ignorant of such thing as e-waste and its health and pollution implication.
“I don’t know anything about it and i don’t wear any protective coat when working on computers,”Iruele told Daily Independent.
But if the encounter at Ikeja computer village was revealing, at Egbeda ,Akowonjo it was a cocktail of comedies.
When Daily Independent approached Victor Olutayo on e-waste he first laughed at the reporter. “Journalists una don come again (meaning you reporters have come again). My brother I have been fixing phones since the advent of GSM in Nigeria and nothing has happened to me. I neither use hand gloves nor lead coats. There is nothing like that in Nigeria. Why do you journalists easily believe what onyibo (white) people tell you? There is nothing like that in this our profession,”Olutayo said with conviction.
At Airport bus stop computer village, the responses were not different. Chukwudi Nwadiani told Daily Independent that he has not heard about electronic waste before. “I have not heard about electronic waste or anything like that. I am just a computer technician who makes his daily living repairing computers and business has been good. I don’t know what you are talking about,”Nwadiani said.
For Nnajiude Ikenna who imports fairly used computer parts from Asia, it is a mere imagination.
“I have been doing importation of both computer and phones from China for over five years now but nothing like that. These things affect western people not Africans. It is mere blackmail to spoil our business but it cannot work because Nigerians prefer fairly used computers and phones because of their reliability,” Ikenna told Daily Independent in an unfriendly manner.
The level of ignorance on e-waste has made it a potent pollution and health threat to Nigerians.
But in a country where government care less about environmental pollution; where even with the importance of climate change, it is yet to get a climate change commission, it would amount to the herculean to think that there would be any mechanism for disposing e-wastes by way of recycling. Even in Developed economies, recycling of e-waste sometimes involve risk to workers, the reason great care is often advised to avoid unsafe exposure during recycling operations.
More complicating is the fact that uncontrolled burning, disassembly, and disposal cause a variety of environmental problems such as groundwater contamination, atmospheric pollution, or even water pollution either by immediate discharge or due to surface runoff. It also causes health problems including occupational safety and health effects among those directly and indirectly involved, due to the methods of processing the waste.
