Smoke and burning plastic don turn Agbogbloshie dump for Accra, Ghana, into one dangerous place for thousands of people wey dey live and work there. Excavators dey dig through mounds of rubbish wey dey smoulder, black smoke dey curl up from burning plastic and rubber, and di smell of stagnant lagoon water dey hang over di area. Thousands of tonnes of refuse don pile up for decades and overwhelm di wetland near Korle Lagoon and Old Fadama settlement, where about 80,000 residents dey live, mostly migrants and traders.
For James Hassan, a 31-year-old scrap dealer from Liberia, di dump na home and livelihood. Without gloves or mask, e dey sift through discarded electronics and metal every day to find scraps to sell. Di skin on im palms don thick and scar from cuts and rashes. Hassan tok say after long days under sun, e dey get headache and cough, but e never go hospital. E feel di sickness na normal thing.
Environmental health experts warn say workers dey exposed to toxic metals and chemicals through cuts for dia skin and by inhaling smoke and dust. Epidemiologist Reginald Quansah of University of Ghana tok say no study don directly link specific diseases to Agbogbloshie pollution. But e note say di contamination wey dey pile up dey raise concern even if scientists never quantify di exact causal chain.
Waste management na big topic for COP31 climate talks wey begin for Turkey on Monday. Much of di refuse for Agbogbloshie come from outside Ghana. Accra big second-hand clothing market dey receive imports from Europe, North America and Asia, but di trade dey carry troubling byproduct. Samuel Quashie-Idun, head of investigations for Greenpeace Africa, tok say plenty clothes wey dem ship to Ghana dey come as waste. Greenpeace estimate say 15 million used garments dey reach Ghana every week, and one study wey di group cite put used clothing imports at more than 110,000 tonnes in 2022.
After traders remove wetin dem fit sell, about half of di clothes end up as dead waste wey dem dump for beaches and fields or burn. For Ghana 35 million people, Greenpeace tok say di volumes far pass local demand and dey put pressure on waste systems. Di group also find say 89 percent of sampled dead garments get petrochemical fibres like polyester, which dey shed microplastics as dem decay and release carcinogens hundreds of times above safe levels when dem burn. Greenpeace record benzene and other carcinogenic substances for smoke from burning textiles at concentrations several hundred times higher than safety thresholds. Brands wey dem identify include Primark, H&M and Marks & Spencer.
Hellen Kahaso Dena, project lead for Greenpeace, tok say di problem no be only environmental crisis but also human health crisis. She accuse Global North countries say dem dey use Ghana as dumping ground for fashion waste. For Agbogbloshie, di metals and electronics dey tell similar story, as scrap workers continue to handle waste wey fit harm their health.
