The Regional capacity building workshop on the Best Available Techniques and Best Environmental Practices (BAT/BEP) guidelines and the Environmentally Sound Management (ESM) of POPs wastes and PCBs for English-speaking countries in Africa took place from 15 to 19 June 2009 in Gigiri, UNEP Headquarters, Nairobi, Kenya. The workshop, which was co-organized by UNEP Regional Office for Africa (ROA), gathered a total of 72 participants from 24 country Parties, NGOs, universities, environmental institutes, regional business organizations and individual companies from Anglophone Africa
Environmental Sound Management (ESM) of POPs wastes:
A first visit was organized in Dandora, Nairobi’s principal dumping site which borders Korogocha, an informal settlement. Dumping at the site is unrestricted. Industrial, agricultural, domestic and medical wastes are strewn all over the site. According to a study undertaken with the support of UNEP every day, scavengers, including children, from the nearby slums and low-income residential areas use the dump to find recyclables and other valuables they can sell as a source of income. Toxics fumes as well as dioxins and furans are released everyday from routine waste burning. The study carried out by UNEP has found high levels of heavy metals, such as lead, mercury and cadmium in local residents and in the soil of the river bank that passes by the dump.
The other site visited was a PCB graveyard where decommissioned transformers and capacitors were buried by the Kenya power and lightening company. The site was decontaminated a few years ago and equipment had been withdrawn and shipped abroad for sound environmental disposal.
The last visit took place in a flower plantation operating along the Lake Naivasha. The company’s representative explained the procedures established by the company to monitor pesticides residues in food and in the environment, as well as their management practices when handling, using and storing pesticides.