Group Urges N\Assembly To Pass The E-waste Bill

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A non-governmental organization, Sustainable Research and Action for Environmental Development, SRADev, Nigeria, has called on the government to pass into law the Electronic Waste Bill proposed to the National Assembly by the National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency, NESREA and the Federal Ministry of Environment.

The proposed bill is meant to place ban on the importation and illegal traffic in electronic and electrical waste from developed countries to Nigeria.

In his opening remark, Leslie Adogame of the SRADev, said: “Nigeria is a developing country with a high penchant for imported goods, including new and faulty electronic/electrical appliances. The legal and illegal importation of these goods and appliances into the country is creating serious human and environmental problems due to unsound management. There are overwhelming evidence that used computing equipment/waste are attributable to the tremendous health and of course environmental problems, especially with people in the occupational related environment like retailers, vendors, technicians, recyclers, scavengers and so on.”

He explained further that there is yet any legal instrument on import of e-waste at the national level.

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“It has become imperative that NGOs as key stakeholders meet to discuss ways of arresting the problem, especially as these wastes contains very high amounts of toxic metals such as lead, cadmium, barium, mercury, beryllium, brominated flame retardants etc which are carcinogenic and affect the nervous system and foetal growth and development,” he added.

The group called on the government to encourage and support researches in the area of e-waste and its implications on health and the environment.

—Adeyera Olubunmi

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