Experts urge safe, efficient recovery of e-waste in Africa

WITH West Africa serving as the major trading route of used Electrical and electronic equipment, experts have called for establishment of a framework for an environmentally sound management of e-waste in the continent that promotes human health, opportunities for social and economic development.

They also threw their weight behind safe and efficient recovery of e-waste, which represents an opportunity for the generation of employment, economic growth and the reduction of poverty.

In the action plans listed by participants of a Pan-African Forum organised by Basel Convention Coordinating Centre for the African Region (BCCC-Africa) in Nigeria, the group wants trade and import of good quality electrical and electronic equipment into Africa as a means to support the UN Millennium Development Goals and foster ICT development.

The three-day regional workshop on enhancing capacities for the environmentally sound management of waste electrical and electronic equipment through the regional delivery in Africa, was opened by the Permanent Secretary, Fatima Nana Mede, represented by Mr. Abdul Kazeem Bayero while the Executive Director, BCCC-Africa, Prof. Oladele Osibanjo is the moderator.

According to the participants, African States should strengthen efforts to control the flow of non-functioning electrical and electronic equipment into the African continent by intensifying enforcement measures.

While it is necessary to reduce e-waste generation at source and minimize transboundary movements of e-waste, they resolved that certain components of e-waste, in particular those containing hazardous substances (cathode-ray tubes, and printed wiring boards), for which there is no national capacity for environmentally sound recycling and recovery, may need to be transported to other countries within or outside the region, where capacities allow environmentally sound recycling and recovery.

They further resolved that African States should take an accelerate efforts aimed at adopting effective national laws, regulations and policy instruments in support of the implementation and enforcement of the Basel Convention.

These efforts would also include developing and adopting a separate legal instrument specifically regulating e-waste issues at the national level.
“National legal and regulatory frameworks on e-waste management should establish key definitions, such as near-end-life electrical and electronic equipment, end-of-life electrical and electronic equipment or e-waste; major actors such as producers, importers. Roles and responsibilities of key stakeholders in the e-waste management system should also be specified.
“African States in cooperation with stakeholder groups should develop and implement a regional strategy on e-waste for Africa, aimed at ensuring a sustainable and environmentally sound solution to transboundary movements of e-waste, e-waste recycling and disposal. This would avoid shifting the e-waste challenges from one country to another within the region,” the participants said.

The forum agreed to adopt a common approach towards assessing the e-waste issue in their respective countries and sub-regions in a systematic manner and following well-established methodologies for conducting integrated environmental assessments.
“Relevant national institutions from the governmental and non-governmental sectors will cooperate in producing periodic national e-waste assessments. A capacity building programme will be developed by UNEP and the SBC to support the production of the national assessments. Bilateral and multilateral donors are invited to support the capacity-building programme.”

Earlier, Mede informed the workshop that the Federal Executive Council has restricted the importation of used EEE into Nigeria because of its hazardous components of e-waste and lack of capacity to manage it in an environmentally sound manner by the informal sector.

She called for the strengthening of the partnership in the field of chemicals management, especially on the e-waste stream in Africa countries with the necessary tools to overcome the challenges of managing the ever increasing quantum of e-waste.