The e-waste is one dark aspect of the digital age. The ever increasing use of electronics has in actual sense resulted in a consequential increase in the end-of-use products. Every day we wake up to new technology and discard the old.

I came across homeless children at Mombasa’s Kibarani dumping site scavenging for copper and metallic scrap from electronics. The children, totally oblivious of the dangers posed by the waste, were breaking open the cases of computers, splitting the CRTs and rummaging on circuit boards for re-usable components.

Another group was burning the wires to separate the copper from the plastics. Strange fumes were emanating from the smouldering electronics. One boy, barely 10 years old, could be seen clutching to a bunch of some copper wires and electronic circuit boards. I watched with pity as the hapless children put their health and safety at the periphery of their quest for a meal for the day.

But they are not the only ones endangered. The toxic components of the e-waste can find their way to anybody’s table. Researchers have identified the impacts poised when the underground water is eventually polluted by toxins and heavy metals like lead and mercury found in electronic waste.

Fumes from the burning e-waste can be hazardous when they cause respiratory infections. Notably, electronic products contain doses of harmful metals and chemicals: mercury is found in some switches and flat screens; lead oxide and barium are in CRTs monitors; polyvinylchloride is found in electric cables and wires; and lead and cadmium are found on circuit boards and batteries.

Some traders in the west are having no better ways of recycling e-waste and end up exporting the problem to developing nations. The e-waste finds itself in Africa and Asia as second hand electronics. It is illegal to export any waste from Europe or USA, but the avenue created by exporting used electronics poses an e-waste gateway for unscrupulous trade of tonnages of discarded electronics.

Just by virtue of being a consumer of technology from the West, we are at risk consuming both the fruits of hi-tech and its poisons unless proper disposal, re-use and recycling techniques are implemented. Millions of computers and other electronics may be deemed obsolete each decade. There is a need to adhere to an ICT law that caters for all the aspects of the e-waste.

In December 2006, the Basel Convention through its country members came up with the Nairobi Declaration to call for urgent global action on e-waste. At the convention, Unep director Achim Steiner urged governments to develop effective regulatory regimes to respond positively to the e-waste problem.

This indeed was an eye opener following the horrifying e-waste dumping incident in Cote d’Ivoire in which deaths, injuries and massive clean-up costs were incurred. The approaches and issues adopted in the Nairobi Declaration deserve implementation to stem this growing e-waste threat.

The CCK requires the respective operators to take full responsibility for the disposal of e-products. But the operators have no attachment to the end-of-life of many products such as mobile phones, which end up as e-waste.

Mr Shahonya is a telecommunications engineer.