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Coalition Press Release MAPUTO, Mozambique, COPENHAGEN, Denmark, 5 October 2000 -- Maputo, Mozambique. Copenhagen, Denmark, 5. October 2000. In what is seen as a stunning turn-around, the Ministry of Environment of Mozambique announced on September 29 that they would no longer consider Danish International Development Agency’s (Danida) plan to retrofit a local cement kiln to become a hazardous waste incinerator to burn stockpiled obsolete pesticides and future undisclosed toxic wastes generated in Mozambique. Instead it was announced, that the government would advocate the environmentalist position calling for export of the pesticide wastes for safe destruction in a developed country, probably in Europe. Previously this year, the Ministry of Environment had announced that 300 tonnes of obsolete and unidentifiable pesticides would be incinerated in the converted cement kiln in the community of Matola, near Maputo. The latest decision marked a major victory for one of the first environmental activist organizations ever established in Mozambique. Livaningo – which means “all that sheds light” was formed in August of 1998 after several organizations including, Greenpeace, Basel Action Network (BAN), Essential Action (co-founders of GAIA Global Anti-Incineration Alliance) and EJNF (Environmental Justice Network Forum) sponsored a visit to Mozambique by world reknowned Professor of Chemistry and critic of hazardous waste incineration, Dr. Paul Connett. The visit was arranged after it appeared that there had been no public consultations and the environmental assessment of the project had been written in English in a Portuguese speaking country. “Had the civil society only been consulted at an earlier stage, Danida and the Mozambique authorities could have saved themselves a lot of trouble and even benefited with a cutting edge approach of dealing with obsolete pesticides such as holding pesticide producers responsible and destroying pesticides using non-incineration and non-polluting destruction technology” said Anabela Lemos of Livaningo. For two years, Livaningo worked tirelessly, educating local Matola residents and businesses about the toxic hazards of pollution from incineration, holding some of the first civil demonstrations known in post-revolution Mozambique, engaging government officials and local media, and even travelling all the way to Denmark to plead their case before Danida and the Danish Parliament. “We just decided that we would not fail, although there were many times when it looked as if all hope was lost,” said Anabela Lemos. “In the course of the struggle, our people have awoken to the problems of pesticides, incineration, and toxic wastes, and have learned that the ultimate solution is to avoid the use of toxic materials in the first place. It has been a great education for all of us here in Mozambique.” It appears that the education effort paid dividends as the deciding factor was that the cement factory in Matola did not want to be a source of toxic contamination to the community. While they agreed that they would destroy the stockpile in a one-time operation, they would not wish to become a permanent toxic waste facility as envisaged by the Danida plan. Because of this decision the Mozambique Ministry of Environment realized that the investment costs to create the hazardous waste incineration technology at the cement plant were no longer economically viable. Now, Livaningo and the global coalition of activists that have worked with them on the case, are demanding that the Danish government import the wastes and destroy them, using state of the art, non-incineration destruction technologies in Europe. “While we appreciate Danida’s efforts to stop the immediate threat posed by the pesticides by collecting and cleaning up the sites around the country, we have all along been demanding that the incineration part of the project be stopped. Now that has actually come true and we hope Danish authorities will now show the way forward and seriously consider bringing non-polluting alternative destruction technologies to Denmark,” said Jacob Hartmann of Greenpeace. “We now call for providers of the new generation of non-incineration based destruction technologies to approach Denmark and make their case,” he said. The activist groups are calling for: 1. Export of all pesticide stocks including contaminated soils to an
industrialized country.
For more information contact: Anabela Lemos
Jacob Hartmann
Jim Puckett
Bobby Peek
Ann Leonard
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