EEPCo to recycle toxic chemical

By Groum Abate

Experco International, a Canadian firm has been selected to decontaminate toxic chemical leaks of Chromated Cooper Arsenate destined for the Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation (EEPCo) in January 2002, still lying at the Port of Djibouti .

Sources told Capital that a meeting was held on November 6 at EEPCo's headquarters between the two parties led by Kidane Gizaw from EEPCo and Aboubaker Douale Waiss from Djibouti where it was agreed that Experco International executes the project at a cost of 522,887 dollars.

According to our sources, the meeting was concluded agreeing on the terms and conditions the selected company would commission and supervise the decontamination. EEPCo is expected to finalize negotiations with Experco International shortly to commence the project.

Two-hundred tonnes of Copper Chromate Arsenate (CCA) arrived from Britain in late January 2002 at the port of Djibouti , bound for EEPCo when the incident happened. EEPCo had imported the chemical for protecting wooden electric poles against termites and decay. The cargo was immediately blocked by port authorities because the chemicals were beginning to seep out of their containers, said to be in poor condition. A total of fifteen sea containers were found leaking and subsequently removed to a secure site. In September 2005, the joint Ethio-Djibouti Intergovernmental Technical Committee agreed on the decontamination of the port and the damping in Ethiopia of the whole content of the aforementioned compartment.

Several attempts by Capital to contact EEPCo officials were unsuccessful.

A UN expert sent to investigate the hazardous cargo in 2002 warned that CCA is a "carcinogenic product and dangerous for the environment," and asked the international community to help decontaminate the affected zone in the port.

The report also called for the cargo to be sent back to Britain . Some countries have banned CCA, which is used as a pesticide, primarily to impregnate wood to protect it from termites.

The cargo is currently stocked in an area of the port's docks, "sealed off" with cement. The leaked CCA is feared that it could contaminate the port's water. A Swiss ecotoxicologist from the Canton of Geneva has established a detoxing zone to accommodate contaminated waste and soil in 2002.

According to figures by WHO, at the time of the leak, as many as 350 persons have claimed to have been exposed. So far, there has been at least one death, though a direct link to chemical exposure was not established.

The components of CCA, an acid-based product containing chromium, copper, and arsenic are highly toxic, corrosive and may cause cancer. Experco International, member of Teknika HBA, a Canadian based firm was established in 1962. The firm has been involved in different projects in many African countries including Algeria, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Côte D'Ivoire, Cameroon, Guinea, Mali, Mauritania, DRC, Rwanda, Senegal, Togo, and Tunisia.