Africa Taking Care Of European, Asian Waste As Second Hand Goods – Mwale

LOCAL government minister Vincent Mwale says Africa is taking care of waste from European and Asian countries who dump goods on the pretext of exporting used products.
In a speech read for him by Southern Province permanent secretary Sibanze Simuchoba during a plenary session at the Electronic Waste Implementation Toolkit (EWIT) national conference at New Fairmont Hotel in Livingstone on Monday, Mwale said electronic waste could result into environmental pollution and later lead to an increase in non-communicable diseases such as cancer.
“European countries dump waste in Africa disguised as used goods…Japan allows used cars and tyres to come to Africa knowing that we are taking care of their waste,” said Mwale, adding that electronic devices had toxic substances that could affect human health and the environment if not properly managed.
Meanwhile, Zambia Environmental Management Agency senior inspector Crispin Simwanza said Zambia had no effective measures to manage waste disposal sites as most of them were not fenced off for protection.
Simwanza also said Zambia had no inventory of electronic waste as there was no law to guide its management.
And EWIT project coordinator Isabella Capurso, from Italy, said the European Union had provided 1.640 million euros for the project, which ends this month.
Capurso said EWIT was being implemented in four African countries with Choma being the pilot district in Zambia while other three countries were South Africa, Kenya and Ivory Coast.