Even though the rumored hazardous toxic waste dumps in the Gulf of Aden are yet to receive press attention, are the anti-piracy campaigns in these waters a veritable occupational hazard?
By: Ringo Bones
Ever since the extensive press coverage of the dramatic rescue of the Maersk Alabama’s skipper Capt. Richard Phillips from the clutches of bloodthirsty Somali pirates by a US Navy SEAL team highlighted the growing danger of piracy on commercial maritime traffic on the Gulf of Aden. The world’s press had yet to highlight another serious – yet relatively underreported threat – lurking in the waters off the Somali coast. Namely the menace posed by illegally dumped hazardous toxic chemical and radioactive wastes.
United Nations envoy for Somalia Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah said there is “reliable information” that European and Asian companies are illegally dumping hazardous toxic chemical wastes, including radioactive wastes, off the Somali coastline. Which could explain why a majority of the Somali pirates are former fisherman who can no longer eke-out a living from their regular fishing grounds due to the environmental destruction caused by the illegal dumping of these toxic chemical and radioactive wastes.
Even though the evidence of this illegal dumping can be traced as far back as 20 years ago, it was the tsunami of December 26, 2004 that literally dumped the evidence of such illegally dumped toxic chemical and radioactive wastes on the beaches of northern Somalia. The United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) reported that the tsunami had washed up rusting containers of illegally dumped toxic chemical wastes on the shores of Puntland.
UNEP spokesman Nick Nuttall states that when the barrels were smashed open by the force of the waves, the containers exposed a “frightening activity” that has been going on for more than a decade. The bad news is, is that the UNEP cannot simply send a team of scientists to evaluate and report on the extent of toxic chemical and radioactive waste contamination on the shores of Puntland in Somalia because of the on-going conflict. And the team of scientists could easily be kidnapped, taken hostage then held for ransom by lawless elements running free in Somalia.
Conflict zones and areas with on-going civil war are an attractive site for cheap illegal hazardous toxic chemical waste dumps by highly organized transnational criminal gangs because of the breakdown in the rule of law. The Lebanese civil war of the 1980s has literally mounds of evidence of illegally dumped toxic wastes across the countryside brought there by transnational criminal gangs with enough money to bribe underpaid and overworked government officials to look the other way. These criminal gangs usually charge around US$2.50 per tonne to dump someone’s hazardous waste illegally without questions asked. Given that it costs on average US$1,000 per tonne to legally dispose off hazardous wastes, its no wonder why these criminal gangs are literally making a killing in disposing hazardous wastes in the world’s ungovernable conflict zones.
Given that the war risk insurance and kidnap coverage premiums issued by insurance brokers to maritime shipping firms plying in the Gulf of Aden recently rose by tenfold due to the increase in pirate activity. Shipping firms plying in the Gulf of Aden are now facing risks on two fronts. From the obvious occupational hazards and risks posed by pirates and the other less obvious – but nonetheless grave threat – the occupational health hazards and risks posed by the hazardous toxic chemical and radioactive wastes being illegally dumped in the Gulf of Aden.
Various military personnel policing these waters could face occupational health risks comparable to that faced by allied troops in Operation Desert Storm of 1991. The world’s navies policing the Gulf of Aden could suffer a 21st Century version of the Gulf War Syndrome, especially if their operations involve swimming without any protective gear in these waters. Maybe Capt. Richard Phillips and the US Navy SEAL team who rescued him needs to be examined for toxic chemical waste and radioactive waste exposure since they swam a number of times in the waters of the Gulf of Aden with nary a protective gear. Especially for radioactive cesium 137 which is the most common illegally dumped radioactive waste.
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Is it just me or is it just because the UNEP spokesperson Nick Nuttall and UN envoy for Somalia Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah first talked to Al Jazeera doesn't mean that their concerns over the illegally dumped hazardous toxic chemical and radioactive wastes in Somali territorial waters and fishing grounds are suspect? Maybe it is an issue of permanent health insurance for those commercial seamen plying on the Gulf of Aden en route to Europe. Maybe piracy is just how the former Somali fisherman express their own critique on the "Bourgeois Morality" and the system of wholesale capitalist environmental destruction that supports it. Capt. Richard Phillips and the US Navy SEAL team that rescued him are not exactly multimillionaires. It is always the poor that will be used as cannon fodder. Maybe the Bush twins should try acing a head-shot using a 2,500-dollar LWRC M-110 sniper rifle at 800 meters.
A critique on "Bourgeois Morality" indeed, though President Obama never mentioned the illegally dumped toxic wastes and it's connection to the on-going piracy in the Gulf of Aden. This is just another "Gulf War Syndrome" waiting to happen.
The month of May is as good a month as any to criticize the Bourgeois Morality and the system of wholesale capitalist environmental destruction that goes with it. Recently, a British-based petrochemical company called TRAFIGUA was caught illegally dumping toxic chemical waste in the village of Djibi in the Ivory Coast. This is the proof the UNEP is looking for?
If the Discovery Channel will ever do a documentary about the on-going piracy in the Gulf of Aden. I think it would be a "special" - i.e. probably presented by Dirty Jobs host Mike Rowe and Future Weapons host Richard Machowicz. The Somali piracy issue - given the toxic chemical waste issue - will nicely fit in both categories.
I do agree that the Discovery channel should do a special documentary on the link between piracy in the Gulf of Aden and the illegally dumped toxic chemical wastes and radioactive wastes that had ruined the livelihoods of subsistence fishermen in the area. Though a tag-team hosting of Mike Rowe and Richard Machowicz would only improve the ratings potential. Maybe Discovery Home and Health is already planning on a similar documentary about the long-term health effects of the parties involved during the dramatic rescue of Capt. Richard Phillips from the Somali Pirates. Especially the US Navy SEAL team who had been swimming in the waters of the Gulf of Aden for awhile.
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