HELLO! Today I will be continuing on topic of E waste in Agogbloshie! Yesterday, I briefly talked about the detrimental effects that people in the area experience on their when they live and work in the E-waste scrap yard. In this blogpost I will be focusing on the degradation of the environment in Agobloshie itself and the surrounding environment.

With the copious piles of E-waste present at the site, they are exposed to environmental factors. Hence, this has led to the release of toxic chemicals into the environment. For example, in 2008, Greenspace released a finding stating that  “over 100 times the background levels of lead and cadmium in the soil at the scrapyard” (Akese and Little, 2018). This occurs when it rains over the area and these harmful chemicals and heavy metals get washed away by rainwater into the surrounding soil. These harmful pollutants are then taken up by plants and animals living in the soil such as worms. Bioaccumulation occurs when the agriculture animals that feeds on these organisms. It was found that an egg that hatched from a free-range chicken in the region has levels of chlorinated dioxins that exceeded the European Food Safety Authority by 220 times. Chlorinated dioxins is increase the risk of cancer and will damage the immune system (Yeung, 2019).

The polluted groundwater would then seep and flow into the surrounding bodies of water in form of run-offs. In this case, the Korle Lagoon and Odaw River which showed high levels of trace metals in these marine systems (Akese and Little, 2018). This has caused the aquatic organisms in the water bodies to be exposed to these toxic substances, which has affected the abundance and biomass of surviving species (Huang, Nkrumah, Anim and Mensah, 2013). Furthermore, the introduction of these contaminants to these waterbodies also reduces the water quality, depriving the residences of the people living in the area of clean, fresh water.

Hence, from this case study, it can be seen the extent of the effects that e-waste can cause. The urbanisation of cities has led to the constant increase production of new electronic problems, rendering old ones obsolete! Because of this, this leads to an increase in E-waste and sometimes the effects of E-waste can be passed on to poorer countries as they taken advantage off. I hope that these past three blogposts has shed light on this ever increasing problem of E-waste!!

Reference:

Akese, G. and Little, P., 2018. Electronic Waste and the Environmental Justice Challenge in Agbogbloshie. Environmental Justice, [online] 11(2), pp.77-83. Available at: <https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/env.2017.0039> [Accessed 4 November 2020].

Huang, J., Nkrumah, P., Anim, D. and Mensah, E., 2013. E-Waste Disposal Effects on the Aquatic Environment: Accra, Ghana. Reviews of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology, pp.19-34.

Yeung, P., 2019. The Toxic Effects Of Electronic Waste In Accra, Ghana. [online] Bloomberg.com. Available at: <https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-05-29/the-rich-world-s-electronic-waste-dumped-in-ghana> [Accessed 3 November 2020].

Featured Image:

finnish eye, 2005. Korle Lagoon. [image] Available at: <https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Korle_Lagoon.jpg> [Accessed 4 November 2020].