MAPUTO — In a stunning turn-around, Mozambique's ministry of environment announced on September 29 that they were no longer considering the Danish International Development Agency's (Danida) plan to convert a local cement kiln into a hazardous waste incinerator to burn stockpiled obsolete pesticides and future undisclosed toxic wastes.
It was announced that the government would advocate the environmentalists' position of calling for the export of the pesticide wastes for safe destruction in a developed country in Europe. Earlier this year, the ministry of environment had announced that 300 tonnes of obsolete and unidentifiable pesticides would be incinerated in the converted kiln at Matola, near Maputo.
The decision was a major victory for one of the first environmental activist organisations in Mozambique. Livaningo — which means "all that sheds light" — was formed in August 1998 after several organisations, including Greenpeace, Basel Action Network and Essential Action, sponsored a visit to Mozambique by world renowned professor of chemistry and critic of hazardous waste incineration Dr Paul Connett, and well-known South African environmentalist Bobby Peek. The visit was arranged because there had been no public consultations and the environmental assessment of the project had been written in English in a Portuguese speaking country.
For two years, Livaningo worked tirelessly to educate local Matola residents and businesspeople about the toxic hazards of pollution from incineration, held some of the first civil demonstrations in post-revolution Mozambique, lobbied government officials and local media, and even travelled to Denmark to plead their case with Danida and the Danish parliament.
Livaningo's Anabela Lemos said: "In the course of the struggle, our people have awakened 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."
The education effort paid dividends. The cement factory's owners decided not to be a source of toxic contamination to the community. While they agreed to destroy the stockpile in a one-off operation, they would not become a permanent toxic waste facility as envisaged by the Danida plan.
Now, Livaningo and the global coalition of activists that have worked with them on the case, are demanding that the Danish government import all pesticide stocks including contaminated soils and destroy them, using state of the art, non-incineration destruction technologies in Europe. They are also demanding that the costs be borne by the companies that originally exported the pesticides to Mozambique.
For more information on the Danida Mozambique Pesticide Disposal Project, visit the Basel Action Network web site at <http://www.ban.org/>.