Analyzing the Environmental Risks from Electronic Waste Dumping in the West African Region

Abstract

The West African region as an emerging frontier in untapped natural resource market is now at the receiving end of illegal shipment of unwanted Electronic waste (E-waste) to vulnerable populations in different countries. Like many areas in the global south, West Africa finds itself in an unwanted place as the preferred graveyard for dumping these items. Besides, many view the trade in second hand electronic items as fiscal gold mine with greater potentials to improve the welfare of citizens in West Africa. This comes under the guise of trading in used shipments from Europe and the US for the purposes of creating new jobs in the West African region, despite the unlawful nature. Given the overall public health risks to those drawn to the sector in lieu of life-threatening exposure to ailments and ecosystem degradation. The receiving nations like Nigeria, Ivory coast, and Ghana have not only endured widespread risks to their water sources in areas adjacent to dump sites. But, over the past years, E-waste operations have grown to troubling proportions in the region as the abandoned components littered in local landfills undercut the aesthetic beauty of cities. With people unaware of the hazards, scavengers, haulers, and technicians regularly exposed to doses of E-waste contaminants face serious health problems. Just as the exposures to E-waste chemicals trigger the hospitalization of victims across West Africa, little has been done to assess the frequency of the problems and the ecological impacts using mix scale techniques. For that, this enquiry will fill that void by assessing the state of E-wastes and the risks in the West African region with emphasis on the issues, trends, impacts, factors, and efforts using secondary data connected to Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and descriptive statistics to track the patterns. The results show increases in the volume of E-waste dumping in the region over the years with impacts on the ecosystem coupled with public health risks. The GIS mapping of the trends pinpointed spatial dispersion of risks and stressors across different clusters of areas in the zone with the problems linked to factors ranging from socio-economic variables, policy, and physical forces. For remedy, the paper proffered various solutions such as effective laws, regular monitoring, sectoral reforms, public enlightenment program and the design of a regional E-waste information system.