Ghanan Rainforest

“Tagesschau” now did a report on electronic waste from industrial countries which is brought to a dumping place in Accra (Ghana).
Did you know that:
>even though this is illegal, member states of the EU and the USA still send electronic waste to this place in Ghana? Those who are responsible for the transportation simply say (lie) that this stuff is old, but still functioning and thus could be used by citizens of Ghana. Often they also give some bribe money to the corrupt customs officers in Ghana and then can bring anything to this dumping place. This way about 500 tons of electronic waste per month make it to Ghana.
>Did you know that the reporter of “Tagesschau” met people there who only receive one dollar per day for burning this electronic waste in order to get to the metals from inside? Poor citizens of Ghana want to sell these materials. They just have to in order to survive!
>Did you know that this electronic waste produces an acid that was strong enough to dissolve the soles of this reporter’s shoes? And that certainly isn’t good for this area’s vegetation or for the people who work there every day either!
>Did you know that working on this dumping place already made people faint, vomit blood, get permanent migraine, caused people to permanently fall ill and also caused infected injuries as well as eye-infections? Reasons are the gases and the acid produced in this toxic place.
>Did you know that most of the people who do this job are just poor children or parents who otherwise couldn’t pay for everything schools over there require?
>Did you know that to limit this misery the makers of electronic gadgets actually could make products that would last longer, but decide in favor of a cheaper way of production as firstly this spares a lot of expenses and secondly also means that quite soon the buyers of this inferior product will require a new one?
>Did you know that in industrial countries there actually are numerous collection points, initiatives by aid-organizations that recycle these products in an environmentally-friendly way and initiatives by producers who think they can increase their popularity by from time to time taking back old or damaged products to recycle them in an environmentally-friendly way? Besides you can still be lazy and dump them on your own attic. If not exposed to the sun or strong heat, this stuff is harmless and thus will not affect your health.

The latest sample of “GEO” says that in Accra (Ghana) there is this huge waste dump where industrial countries dump their electronic waste. Said waste already is enough to pollute the rivers and lakes around Accra and each year before and after the holidays new waste is added as people either throw away their old electronic devices after receiving new ones or realize that the device they received as a holiday-present is malfunctioning. They don’t even reconsider doing some research on where to bring malfunctioning devices to for recycling. Street children or children from poor families are forced to go to these waste dumps and get metals like copper out of TV’s, cables etc. by burning them and afterwards collecting non-flammable metals. I hope you didn’t get to experience anything like this yet, but burning electric devices and cables set free mercury vapor and other gases that can cause poor concentration and cancer. For one TV destroyed this way they receive 1,25€ – ignoring that many traders who buy these metals from the children actually cheat and give them less – and experts say that even under best condition an underage person shouldn’t be able to burn more than 10 TV’s per day.

I know that only a very small paragraph of this comment deals with Ghana and not even with this forest, but with another area in this country. Still I just want to post this in here:
What the latest episode of the documentary show “Top Zehn” – which dealt with the ten most polluted places on earth – said:
>In Norilsk (Russia) huge amounts of nickle get produced which causes the creation of toxic SO2 as a byproduct. The amount of SO2 that descends the chimneys of the factories in this area is so extreme that in a radius of 30km around Norilsk no trees get to grow. They all die off due to the SO2.
>The Citarum-River in Indonesia is polluted due to lead that descends the factories around this river. Millions of dollars already were used to clean this river as Indonesia needs the water to drink, to cook, to clean and to produce things. As a matter of fact polluting a river to such extremes as the Citarum-River would be illegal and punishable.
>The Nigerdelta in Nigeria is polluted due to the production of oil. As Nigeria is a poor country their techniques aren’t that advanced. Thus it happens that oil gets spilled which pollutes the earth and contaminates food – and thus makes many countries not buy products from Nigeria.
>There is an area called Hazaribagh in Bangladesh. Bangladesh is one of the least developed countries and thus the people who throw away their rubbish aren’t educated enough to realize the damage they do. Also the police usually isn’t that strict in developing countries and thus it happens that even toxic waste gets thrown away. For example “Top Zehn” reported that some of the chemicals they pour into rivers to get rid of them cause cancer and several serious skin diseases.
>Kalimantan (Indonesia) has a problem with quicksilver that people still use in gold mines, because they are too poor to afford anything better to get to the gold there. Thus each year more than 1.000 tons of quicksilver pollute the earth there which contaminates fields and animals alike.
>In Argentina there is a river called Rio Matanza-Riachuelo. People estimate that more than 15.000 factories around this river just pour their waste into the river which – as experts believe – is the reason why in some cities around there so many people suffer from cancer. Also it is proven that some of this waste already polluted the air, animals, plants and – of course – the water, too.
>Agbogbloshie in Ghana – another developing country – has a place where especially the poor burn electric waste they collected to get to the more precious metals that are inside these computers, TVs and radios. However by doing so they accidentally cause a chemical reaction of which the result is a toxic gas that influences the function of the human brain, influences life expectancy and contaminates men, animals and plants.
>Kabwe is the capital of the LDC Zambia, but alas it also is surrounded by lead-mines. In these mines toxic gases get produced – sometimes to such an extent that it would kill a weaker person like a child, an elder person or someone who already is sick – and they often descend these mines and the wind blows them to this city.
P.S. I know I only mentioned eight of these places while the beginning of this comment suggests that I’d mention 10 places. It’s just that most people already know what happened in Chernobyl decades ago and the second place I didn’t mention here just was too unspectacular for me. They lately just found some toxic waste that once was produced by Soviet Russia and they still aren’t done yet carrying all this stuff away from where they found it burried.

“https://secure3.convio.net/ra/site/Donation2?idb=254787134&df_id=1441&1441.donation=form1&JServSessionIdr004=z0to9lrcg4.app332a” and “http://www.therainforestsite.com/clickToGive/home.faces?siteId=4”...I know I often mentioned these two websites here, but it’s just because they are known to be trustworthy and people who aren’t even members can get involved, too.