KARACHI, Feb 21: Thousands of tons of used computers and obsolete electronic equipment, which contain large amounts of hazardous waste, are being brought into Pakistan with complete disregard to the grave risks they pose to human and environmental health, Dawn has learnt.
Tens of thousands of used computers and related equipment, which are difficult and expensive to dispose of in developed countries because of their hazardous nature, are annually imported under the pretext of ‘second-hand machinery’. The businessmen that make millions through these deals use the pretext of facilitating computer literacy in the country.
However, these machines contain high amounts of hazardous material such as lead, mercury, chromium and plastics. Since the bulk of the imported consignment is obsolete or beyond repair, it is cannibalised for usable parts and then discarded, allowing unknown quantities of the poisons to seep into the country’s environmental resources. Furthermore, the health of all the people working in the unregulated ‘recycling’ of such equipment is compromised.
Few laws appear to be in place to check this dangerous practice. Pakistan is a signatory to the Basel Convention on the Control of Trans-boundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal, which monitors the movement of such types of toxic waste.
However, the convention becomes flexible when the goods are to be used for the same purpose, ie old computers are to be used as second-hand machines. As a result, the relevant regulating agencies in Pakistan deny the import of hazardous waste and say that bringing in used computers is permissible since they will be reused.
Since much of these consignments are in practice stripped and sent for ‘recycling’, the rules of the Basel Convention are actually flouted because the machines are no longer being used for the same purpose.
While the government has done little to check and regulate such toxic imports, the issue has also not received attention from non-governmental or environmental bodies in the country. As a result, neither the workers in the computer recycling industry nor consumers who buy used equipment due to its low cost are aware of the threats to their health.
Sources informed Dawn that a few years ago, the government revised the duty tax levied on used computers to make them less expensive. Prices crashed as a result and used computers became available for nearly 10 per cent of the earlier cost, creating an increased demand for old imported computers and equipment.
Dangerous toxins
Experts warn that the toxic materials found in computer equipment include lead, cadmium, mercury, chromium, barium and various sorts of plastics. The older the computer, the higher the level of hazardous elements – newer models are increasingly being designed with this issue in mind.
Owing to such rapid improvements in technology, consumers in developed countries switch as soon as possible to newer and safer machines and simply discard their old equipment. The environmentally-safe disposal of such waste is bound by stringent laws in the West and is an expensive proposition. Therefore, a substantial portion is dumped in developing countries such as Pakistan, where such environmental laws either don’t exist or the officials in charge are inefficient or corrupt. Disguised as technology transfer or second-hand machinery to facilitate low-cost goods production, the toxic waste is sold to traders in poorer countries.
Once the equipment arrives in Pakistan, it is separated according to the condition. Working machines are sold in the market, usable parts are removed and unusable machines are sent to the enterprising recycling industry in various parts of the city, particularly in the Shershah area. This is an overwhelmingly informal sector where occupational safety laws, health safeguards and prerequisites such as properly ventilated working areas are rarely in place. The workers, largely woman and children, are therefore exposed to all sorts of toxins.
The waste generated by this industry is dumped into the Lyari river where it bisects Shershah, and eventually finds its way into the Arabian Sea where it contaminates the marine ecosystem, Dawn learned. Some of the waste is dumped in landfills where it contaminates the soil and after leeching through, pollutes subsoil aquifers.
Amongst the major contaminants is lead, used in glass panels and gaskets in computer monitors and the solder in circuit boards, which damages the central / peripheral nervous system and the reproductive system, and poisons the blood and kidneys. It also accumulates in the environment and has an acute effect on plants, animals and micro-organisms. Cadmium, found in SMD chip resistors, infra-red detectors and semiconductor chips, accumulates in the kidneys and has an irreversible effect on human health. Mercury, used in a large number of electronic items such as sensors, switches and printed circuit boards, enters the food chain very easily and damages the brain, kidneys and harms foetal development. Meanwhile chromium, which is used decoratively or as corrosion protection, passes easily through cell membranes and can potentially damage DNA, while plastics and PVC release dioxins when burnt.
‘Targeted laws needed’
The head of the Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency, Asif Shuja, told Dawn from Islamabad that toxic waste could not be exported because Pakistan is a signatory to the Basel Convention. He conceded, however, that the import of used machinery such as computers was a grey area and efforts were under way to formulate specific laws to close such loopholes. “It is high time that the import policy was reviewed and laid out a permissible age-limit for imported equipment,” he said. “Training for the regulators such as officials of the Customs Department and others, is also being planned.”
Sources in the Customs Department also denied that hazardous waste was being imported but added that used machinery or computers that were to be used for the same purpose could be legally brought in. One official said that while some of the used computers may pose a threat, this was probably the cost a poor nation had to pay to compete in the global market.
According to Dr Ahmed Saeed of the IUCN, not much primary research has been conducted in Pakistan on how much hazardous waste is being imported under the pretext of used machinery or computers, how it was disposed of or even what and how high its effects were of human and environmental health.
While the WWF-P has not worked on the import of e-waste, it has reportedly approached the federal government in terms of the waste brought in through the ship-breaking industry. The organisation’s toxics programme chief, Hammad Naqi, told Dawn that one of these occasions was when a British war ship, a veteran of the Falklands War, was brought to the Gadani ship breaking yard. “It was carrying massive quantities of asbestos, which violated the Basel Convention, but nothing was done,” he said. “This is also one of the ways in which unscrupulous traders bring hazardous materials into the country. It is vital for the government to prescribe guidelines for this sector.”
Similarly, Najam Khursheed, a former Asia-Pacific chief of the Ramsar Convention which deals with the conservation of wetlands, pointed out that targeted laws needed to be formulated and existing laws had to be brought in line with the country’s international commitments, such as the Basel Convention. “Human resources, such as the officials manning the entry points, also need training to check such practices that allow unscrupulous traders to make a quick buck at the cost of the nation’s health and environment,” he commented. “The health and economic costs of this trade are vast, but consumers in the west or the traders are not the ones who suffer.”
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