Djibouti 
Pesticide emergency in Djibouti

afrol News, 20 February - The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) yesterday called for immediate emergency intervention in Djibouti, where 10 shipping containers leaking toxic pesticide are creating serious human health and environmental problems. "The authorities in Djibouti should not be left alone with this problem," FAO said.

The current location of the containers - which hold chromated copper arsenate, primarily used as a wood preservative for power and telegraph poles and is carcinogenic - is already severely contaminated, FAO said. The worst affected site is within 400 metres of a food aid store. 

Over 200 tonnes of the chemical were shipped recently in plastic containers from the United Kingdom to be delivered to the Ethiopian Power Corporation, according to the UN agency. 

- All previous shipments of this chemical have used steel drums for the product and no leakage occurred, said FAO expert Kevin Helps, who was asked by the Djibouti Ministry of Agriculture to visit the site and make safeguard recommendations. "It appears that the plastic containers have suffered a catastrophic failure resulting in leakage from the container. The containers must have started to leak while on the vessel." 

Port authorities have taken first steps to safeguard the contaminated areas, and the potential for the spread of contamination by dust or wind has been reduced, FAO said. As an immediate emergency intervention, the agency suggested quarantining the storage site and placing guards to prevent access to the area. All further leakage should be contained to prevent further soil contamination. 

As an immediate emergency intervention, FAO suggested setting the storage site as a quarantine area and placing guards to prevent access to the site. All further leakage should be contained to prevent further soil contamination. "Under no circumstances should the containers be opened until a specialist in dealing with hazardous waste with all necessary safety equipment is present at the site," Helps said. "The pesticides cannot be transported to Ethiopia without being repackaged." 

- This work must be completed before the chemical is spread by rains, according to Helps. "The chemical is highly soluble and very easily leached from soil. If the chemical were to be leached into the sea, the impact on the fish stocks would be very serious." 

Highly contaminated material needs to be sent back to the UK, according to FAO. "Currently no suitable facilities exist in Africa for the safe disposal of this hazardous product. The final repackaging and decontamination will cost a minimum of US$ 800,000." 

Sources: Based on FAO and afrol archives

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