Deputies Blame West For Africa's Environmental Mess

AFRICA NEWS

Climate change affected water resources, agriculture, health, ecosystems and biodiversity, forestry and coastal zones. The continent was particularly vulnerable because of its dependence on rain-fed agriculture.

by Staff Writers
Midrand (AFP) South Africa, May 14, 2007
Deputies and experts attending the Pan African Parliament Monday called for Western countries to help reverse the environmental damage to the continent that they had helped create. "This problem is generated by countries in the West," said the African Union (AU) Commission's rural development and agriculture commission director Babagana Ahmadu.

"We are asking the Western nations to help us tackle the impact of this problem," he added. Ahmadu was presenting a report on the issue to the Pan African Parliament (PAP) in Midrand, South Africa.

Climate change and waste dumping had had "devastating consequences" on food security and health, he told reporters. "It is beyond our means to address this problem in Africa because we lack the technology and the financial capability."

Climate change affected water resources, agriculture, health, ecosystems and biodiversity, forestry and coastal zones, he said. The continent was particularly vulnerable because of its dependence on rain-fed agriculture.

Debating the report, parliamentarians said the West should pay reparations. "There should be compensation for Africa like Israel (received) from Germany after the Second World War," Egyptian MP Mohammed Abdulaziz said.

"PAP should ask for compensation from Western countries over greenhouse effects and hazardous waste dumping." Sudanese parliamentarian Suad El Fateh El Badaoui argued: "Our parliament should look seriously into the dumping of waste on the continent.

"This destruction of our environment is done by foreigners, especially from the west, assisted by selfish Africans," he added.

Ahmadu said 50,000 metric tonnes of waste was stored on the continent.

Nwancha Okioma, a rapportur of a PAP mission to the Ivory Coast, raised the issue of the Russian ship -- registered in Panama -- which last August offloaded 525 metric tonnes of highly toxic liquid waste in the port of Abidjan.

The Ivorian authorities say the resulting pollution killed at least 15 people and led to 107,000 being hospitalised.

Source: Agence France-Presse

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