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Re-Examining Hazardous Waste in Nigeria: Practical Possibilities within the United Nations System

Document Cited in Related
Vincent
DOI10.3366/ajicl.2018.0231
Date01 May 2018
Author
Pages264-282
Published date01 May 2018
INTRODUCTION

The beginning of the twentieth century witnessed a new wave in human population growth, urbanisation, intensive agriculture and industrialisation leading to a global menace and a new area of international concern: environmental pollution. To date, Nigeria, in spite of its vast number of legal and regulatory frameworks to manage the disposal of hazardous waste, finds itself at the centre of a growing mountain of unrestricted environmental pollution through the creation of large quantities of hazardous waste outstripping the country's capacity to properly dispose of it. The word ‘waste’ has been defined by a number of international instruments1 as substances or objects that are disposed of, intended to be disposed of or required to be disposed of under the provisions of national law.2 Hazardous wastes on the other hand have been defined as a subset of wastes that include a wide range of wastes capable of causing harm to human health, the environment or both.3 UNEP estimates that countries worldwide generate over 400 million tons of hazardous waste each year, with OECD countries producing the largest amount of waste at around 300 million tons. Unlike many other environmental problems, waste creation is something people do not often think about in terms of the near future. Generators of hazardous waste in most cases choose the cheapest method of getting rid of it, dumping it on the streets, on vacant grounds, into drains, streams or watercourses or burning it to lessen the perceived nuisance of amassed heaps of waste.4 In Nigeria particularly, research has shown that the perception of toxic waste disposal indicates that people's attitudes to sanitation issues contribute to the waste management problem.5 While some citizens have the notion that the payment of taxes makes it the sole responsibility of the authorities to provide them with a clean and healthy environment,6 a great majority are unwilling to participate as a result of a lack of awareness and concern about the deteriorating environment as well as the problem of poverty.7

Like food and shelter, it is a basic human need to live in a clean and healthy environment. It is thus correct to say that the management of hazardous waste is a human right in itself.8 This has made it an international concern prompting action among countries, resulting in the development of binding and non-legally binding international agreements setting forth principles and standards for the management of hazardous wastes around the world. Some of these international instruments will be examined below:

The Basel Convention of 1989

The Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal is another United Nations treaty which took place on 22 March 1989 in Basel, Switzerland and was signed by 51 heads of state.9 It did not, however, take effect until 5 May 1992.

The increasing awareness of the negative impact of hazardous waste on the environment and human health necessitated the signing of this treaty. The Preamble expressly states that its purpose is to protect human health and the environment against the adverse effects that may result from the generation and management of hazardous and other wastes. As a result of the limited number of disposal sites and developed countries as well as a great increase in the cost of disposal, the world experienced an increase in the transboundary movement of waste from developed countries to developing countries without any stringent rules on waste disposal.10 A notable incident that led to the Basel Convention was the 1988 Koko toxic waste dump incident in Nigeria in which five ships transported 8,000 barrels of hazardous waste from Italy to the small town of Koko in Nigeria11 in exchange for $100 monthly rent which was paid to a Nigerian for the use of his farmland. Another incident was the Khian sea waste incident in Haiti in which a ship carrying incinerator ash from Philadelphia dumped it on a beach in Haiti and in the sea in general.12 In response, the Prasanna Srinivasan Visiting Research Fellow Liberty Institute stated that the Convention aims to do the following:

reduce transboundary movements of hazardous waste to a minimum;

ensure that hazardous wastes are treated and disposed of as close as possible to their source of generation;

minimise hazardous waste generation at source.13

 The provisions of the Basel Convention spelt out clearly that the dumping of toxic waste was a criminal offence.14 For its implementation, Articles 15 and 16 of the Convention established a Conference of the Parties (‘COP’) and a Secretariat and charged them with various responsibilities. Article 15 also allowed for the establishment of Subsidiary Bodies to implement its provisions. The COP is the political and decision-making body, which comprises representatives of all the parties to the Convention. Recognising that a reduction in waste generation is the long-term solution to the stockpiling and across-the-border disposal of hazardous wastes, the COP in 1999 decided to set out a Strategic Plan and Guidelines for the Convention's activities during the next decade in the ‘Basel Declaration’. Emphasising the minimisation of hazardous waste generation, the Plan and strategy for this next decade (2000–10) included

the active promotion and use of cleaner technologies and production methods;

the creation of awareness to promote the Convention, the aims of the strategy on environmentally sound management of hazardous wastes and other implementation activities; and

the implementation and promotion of technical capacity-building as well as developing and transferring environmentally sound technologies for management of hazardous wastes, especially for developing countries and countries with economies in transition.

 However, one weakness of the Convention remains the fact that it contained no provision for enforcement or punishment of offenders, which invariably meant that signatories to the Convention were not bound by its provisions.15 The Bamako Convention of 1991

Many African states considered the Basel Convention insufficient, and in 1991, 12 nations of the Organisation for African Unity (now the African Union) converged at Bamako, Mali and adopted the Bamako Convention on the Ban of the Import into Africa and the Control of Transboundary Movement and Management of Hazardous Wastes within Africa to address specific regional concerns regarding hazardous waste.16 These concerns included the following:

the realisation that the Basel Convention had failed to prohibit the trade of hazardous wastes to less developed countries like Africa; and

The realisation that many developed nations were still exporting waste to Africa.

 As a result, the Bamako Convention evolved to place a complete prohibition on the trade in hazardous wastes. The Convention contains 30 articles and five annexes to correct the lacunae in the Basel Convention. Thus, unlike the Basel Convention, the Bamako Convention not only covers a broader scope of preventing hazardous waste by extending it to cover radioactive waste, it also imposes strict and unlimited liability on importers of hazardous wastes into Africa NIGERIA'S APPROACH TO HAZARDOUS WASTE MANAGEMENT

On this, it is important to state here that Nigeria has a policy on the environment reflected in its legislation and seemingly effective institutions. However, despite these, there seems to be stagnation in the hazardous waste management system of the country as a result of its failure to design best practices for effective management in the country. Prominent among the legislation acting as a propeller for the institutions in question are the following.

The Harmful Waste (Special Criminal Provisions) Act 1988

As a result of the illegal dumping of toxic waste at the Koko port located in the southern part of Nigeria in 1988, the consciousness of the Federal government was awakened over the need to enact a law prohibiting the dumping of waste indiscriminately in any part of Nigeria.17 This led to the enactment of the Harmful Waste (Special Criminal Provisions) Act of 1988.18 It was an immediate response to the national embarrassment occasioned by the illegal dumping of hazardous waste by an Italian ship on Nigerian soil. The Harmful Waste Act prohibits, without lawful authority, the carrying, dumping or depositing of harmful waste in the air, land or waters of Nigeria. It prohibits and also declares unlawful all activities relating to the purchase, sale, importation, transit, transportation, deposit and storage of harmful wastes, while providing for a punishment of life imprisonment for offenders as well as the forfeiture of land or anything used to commit the offence. There is also a provision for the punishment of any conniving, consenting or negligent officer where the offence is committed by a company. The Act also removes any immunity covering any individual in violation as well as defines the civil liability of any offender to the effect that such a person will be liable to persons who have suffered injury as a result of his offending act.

 The Environmental Impact Assessment Act 1992

The Environmental Impact Assessment Act (formerly Decree No. 86) of 1992 is an additional document with the aim of protecting the Nigerian environment. According to Oota:

It is particularly directed at regulating the industrialization process with due regard to the environment. By this Decree, no industrial plan/development/activity falling under the Federal Ministry of Environment's mandatory list can be executed without prior consideration of the environmental consequences of such a proposed action, in the form of an environmental impact assessment. The Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), an arm of the Ministry of Petroleum Resources, recognizing the national importance of the oil and gas industry sector to the continued growth of the Nigerian economy and...

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