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Amnesty international and greenpeace netherlands
Chapter 4
Another driver recounted how he had dumped waste in a canal:
““
… When I went to dump it, I realized it was really bad. They wanted me to do a second journey. I refused. The whole process took place at night. I dumped it in the canal in 176 Vridi…
”
The drivers have stated in interviews with Greenpeace that they did not know anything about the waste they had been asked to transport.
I’m sure none of the trucking companies “ “ knew what the product was. No one. Nobody. If a trucking company had known that the product was so dangerous, he would never have agreed to send out a truck. Because after this happened, some people even wanted to just get rid of their trucks… There were some cases where the owners [told an employee] to take the truck, to take it somewhere and burn it. He didn’t want that truck any more. Imagine a trucking company, which wants to make a profit, and which is happy to see its trucks 177 burn!
”
Many of the drivers also experienced physical symptoms associated with contact with the waste.
““
I loaded the product and then I pulled away from the dock. Then I called [name withheld] to find out where I had to go. He told me someone would accompany me to the parking lot to the garage at Koumassi… When we arrived, it was already late at night, so we parked the truck. The next morning, when I arrived, the product had damaged the security valve on my truck. I released the lock and saw that the product had already spilt out of the damaged hatch. When I did this, the product got on to my hand. A while later, when I touched my hand, and mainly the nails, when I pushed they came off a little. So 178 the product ate away at the hands.
”
““
I did one transport. I had some of the product on my clothes, because when I want to dump the product, some of it touched my clothes. When I gave the clothes at home to my wife, she got headaches, her belly ached, and 179 she had to vomit.
”
In the months following the dumping many of the drivers went into hiding, fearing public anger if they were found to have been involved.
““
We felt we were victims; we did not know the product was so dangerous. The people, however, took us for murderers. It was for this reason that we had to go into hiding and that we could not consult doctors in the public health centres to be treated. We had also lost our contracts and it was always already difficult to 180 find work as a driver.
”
According to Trafigura, the drivers originally claimed not to have suffered from any symptoms as a result of transporting the waste. This is also what one of the drivers had already said in an interview with Ivorian newspaper Le Patriote months before Trafigura contacted the drivers.181
Where was the waste dumped? A complete picture of where all of the waste was dumped has never emerged. The fact that the drivers dumped it in numerous locations and subsequently went into hiding is one reason why it later proved difficult to identify all of the affected sites. A map with the most widely accepted data released by UNOSAT (UN Operational Satellite Applications Programme) using information from Ivorian authorities, the European Union and UNOCHA shows 18 dumping points.
UNOSAT map shows known dump sites. © UNITAR Please also see Annex 1, which includes an overview of the dumping and the impact points based on the testimonies of the drivers that transported the waste.