Impact socio-économique du déversement de déchets toxiques à Abidjan en 2006 à l’échelle des ménages

Abstract

In August 2006, toxic wastes were discharged in the district of Abidjan, causing important health consequences in many households in the area. In order to appreciate the socio-economic impact of the consequences of toxic waste discharge on the households and of the measures taken by the authorities to deal with this catastrophe, and to appreciate the spatial extent of the pollution, we undertook a multidisciplinary transversal investigation at the sites of discharge of oxic waste, from October the 19th to December the 8th, 2006, using a transect sampling methodology. This paper presents the results related to the socio-economic aspects of the survey while the environmental and epidemiological results are presented in two other published papers. The socioeconomics investigation, conducted using a questionnaire, concerned 809 households across the various sites of discharge of toxic waste. More than 62% of households had at least one person who had been affected by toxic waste (affected households). 62.47% of these households were in Cocody district (with 2 sites and 4 points of discharge), 30.14% in Abobo district (with 2 sites and 3 points) and 7.39% in Koumassi district (with 1 site and 1 point). To escape the bad smell and the nuisance, 22.75% of the 501 "affected" households had left their houses. To face the health consequences generated by the toxic waste, 30.54% of the "affected" households engaged expenses. Those were on average of 92 450 FCFA (€141), with a minimum of 1 000 FCFA (€1.5) and a maximum of 1500000 FCFA (€2.287), in spite of the advertisement of the exemption from payment treatment fees made by the government. The decision of destroying cultures and farms near the points of discharge of the toxic products in a radius of 200 meters, taken by the authorities, touched 2.22% of the households. For these households, it did nothing but worsen their state of poverty, since the zone of influence of the toxic waste went well beyond the 200 meters prescribed by the authorities as the limit of the operations of destruction.