CHEAP, IMPORTED TECHNOLOGY, MEANS THAT THE CONTINENT HAS LITTLE PROTECTION

11:39 PM May 2, 1996

CHEAP, IMPORTED TECHNOLOGY, MEANS THAT THE CONTINENT HAS LITTLE PROTECTION
By early 1994, 30 African states had signed the 1987 Montreal Protocol that seeks to control and ultimately ban the use of substances that deplete atmospheric ozone, a gas that diminishes the impact of harmful ultraviolet sunlight, according to a Zimbabwean green group, Environment 2000. This radiation can cause skin diseases and a variety of other ailments.

Kenya, which ratified the Montreal Protocol in 1988 and the London and Copenhagen amendments in 1994, is trying to phase out the use of CFC-refrigerators, air conditioners, solvents and aerosols.

"We are, for example, enlightening the public to buy only chlorofluorocarbon-free refrigerators," says Kihumba Njuguna of the state-run Kenya National Environment Secretariat. "And we require every refrigerator to carry the tag CFC-free."

But environmentalists here are battling to keep pace with rapid economic liberalisation which has thrown the door open to all manner of imports, including products which have fallen out of favour in the West because they are not ozone-safe.

"Unfortunately, Kenya is yet to implement the terms of the protocol," says a spokesman at the Nairobi-based Climate Network Africa. "Until it does, ozone-unfriendly products like refrigerators will continue to find their way into Kenya."

"Before the liberalisation in 1992, things were controlled and we exactly knew what substances were entering the country," laments Njuguna. "Now we don't know. So many things are entering Kenya and we can't monitor them all."

According to Njuguna, developing countries consume less than 10 percent of the world's ODSs. "But the level of our consumption is growing. We don't produce them. We are only consumers."

"In fact, Kenya should have been in the forefront in the fight to phase out ozone depleting substances," says Njuguna, "because the Ozone Secretariat is based here."

The secretariat, located within the headquarters of the U.N. Environment Programme (UNEP), monitors the dumping of ODSs stipulated by the 1985 Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer, which with the Montreal Protocol, form the basis for global cooperation in protection of the ozone layer.

According to Boubie Jeremy Bayze, a coordinator of UNEP's Ozone Depleting Substances Network (ODSONET), "African countries should adopt measures forbidding inappropriate imports."

ODSONET, which comprises 17 African countries that have ratified the Montreal Protocol, held a meeting in the Congo capital of Brazzaville between Apr. 18 and 19 at which members presented their programmes for the elimination of ODSs mainly by controlling or prohibiting their importation. ODSONET meets twice a year and will meet again in Tunisia in October.

However, Africa can ill-afford to phase out ODSs completely as it can not readily access more environmentally friendly, but just as cheap, technology.

Bazye explains: "The main concerns in Africa are economic rather than ecological. The problem is that these are substances used for economic reasons, for example, to make mortuaries cold and also in hospitals to preserve certain medicines."

"Now, our countries have neither the capacity nor the means to change all that. You can't imagine a hospital without a freezer. So, it's all those things that are impeding the abolition of substances harmful to ozone."

Bayze's views are confirmed by among others, Congolese mechanic, Soukissa Mika. "It would be unreasonable to ask me to get rid off my freezer and my air-conditioner when I know that I spent lots of money to acquire them. Rather ask the industrialists to stop making them. If they can find new products to replace the famous CFCs, it would be great."

But for most people in Africa, recognition of the damage caused by CFCs is so low, no choice is involved. "With small-scale industrial infrastructures, a very low density of vehicles, awareness about CFCs and other polluting gases among Rwandans is very little or none, save among a few scientists,"says Sam Kanyarukiga, an environmental expert and advisor to President Pasteur Bizimungu.

"Nevertheless there is remarkable concern about other environmental issues at the high policy-making level, especially the protection of natural resources, and environment as a whole," he told IPS.

A fund to curb dumping of ODSs has been set up in Montreal. It has allocated 292 million dollars for projects in Africa, but 90 per cent of the funds are for only seven countries and the rest covers country programme preparation and institutional strengthening.