In the last few years, Nigeria had come up with regulations on electronic waste (e-Waste) under the NESREA Act as amended, but the issue of managing e-waste has remained intractable especially within key trading centres including Ikeja Computer Village, Alaba International market and other centres.
In Ghana, Business Hilights gathered that the absence of e-waste recycling centres in the country as well as systems for the collection, transportation, treatment, storage, recovery and disposal of obsolete electronic devices is hampering sustainable and environmentally sound e-waste management.
Visits to Alaba International show that more still need to be done in the areas of education and awareness creation in terms of exposures to poisonous electronic elements by artisans who eke out leaving from e-wastes dumps.
In Ghana, the Deputy Central Regional Chairman of the Ghana Electronic Service Technicians Association (GESTA), Mr Alhasan Kassim has made an appeal to government to put in place institutional infrastructures for the collection and recycling of E-waste in the country.
This came to light recently when Health and Safety Ghana (HESAG), an NGO embarked on an outreach programme to educate members of GESTA in the Central Region on the need for sustainable e-waste management practices.
The artisans were made up of mobile phone, television and radio set repairers as well as scrap dealers.
Kassim said “Now that we are talking about improved e-waste management, government must establish e-waste recycling centres for the efforts of your organization to become effective”.
“Our small shops cannot contain the wastes we generate, there should be somewhere we can send them. If that is not done, we will have no option than to continue our old ways of disposing “, he said.
According to him, time has come to end haphazard disposal of e-waste whiles they wait for government to establish the centres.
Some participants who spoke at the event in Ghana were quick to call on government to show more commitment to ensure improved e-waste management, saying “we are very grateful to you for this education but we pray it is not one of those usual talks. We want the government to show us that they are serious about this”.
