Ivory Coast toxic clean-up offer

OK, Trafigura can keep their admission of liability.  After all, they've been hit where it matters most in the pockets even though $198m is a fraction their bottom line.  Maybe one day it will become cost prohibitive for corporations that care more about profits than people to dump their toxic waste in third world villages.

 

We can only pray.   plk

 

 

BBC NEWS | Business | Ivory Coast toxic clean-up offer
Read the entire article at:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6359617.stm

Summary:

Ivory Coast toxic clean-up offer Dutch-based oil trading group Trafigura is to pay the Ivorian government $198m (£102m) for a clean-up and inquiry after a"toxic waste" incident in 2006. Trafigura say this is not "damages" and that there is no admission of liability on their part for whatever happened. 

Ten people died and many fell ill after waste was shipped to Abidjan and left around the city in August.

After announcing the clean-up settlement Eric de Turckheim, a Trafigura director, said: "Both the Ivorian government and Trafigura can now move forward together to act in the best interests of the people of Abidjan."  He said Trafigura would continue doing business in the Ivory Coast.

Trafigura first attempted to discharge the chemical slops from one of its tankers, the Probo Koala, in the Dutch port of Amsterdam in early August. But the company that was to dispose of the waste suddenly increased its charges dramatically - asking for more to treat the waste.  Trafigura refused, and the tanker proceeded to Nigeria.  There it failed to reach an agreement with two local firms about offloading the waste and only in Ivory Coast did it find a company to handle the waste.

Two weeks later the first complaints arose.

Summarized by Copernic Summarizer