Ozone depleting substances still abundant in Cameroon

But ozone office officials say Cameroon is allowing in prescribed quantities of CFC-containing items and would eradicate their influx by 2010

By Ntaryike Divine, Jr. in Douala

Despite the many workshops and seminars on completely phasing out Ozone Depleting Substances, ODS, in the country by the end of this decade, the bulging influx of used refrigerators, inter alia, still leaves much to worry about.

But officials of the National Ozone Office are confident. They say Cameroon is only letting in the
allowed margin of 25 metric tons. “You head the minister’s declaration; by 2010 no ODS will be allowed to enter Cameroon ,” Enow Peter Ayuk, coordinator of the National Ozone Office said here Tuesday. He spoke on the sidelines of yet another ozone-related workshop grouping stakeholders from 13 Francophone African countries.

Helle Pierre, Environment and Nature Protection minister, who flagged off the 5-day deliberations
Monday, lauded results obtained by Cameroon in the CFC eradication program. He, however, said more investments were needed to readapt and correct shortfalls in refrigeration equipment and the foams manufacturing industry.

The workshop, which wraps up this Friday, 15 May, sought to examine modalities for regional information exchange, networking, capacity building, inter alia towards the complete eradication of ODS by a 2010 deadline prescribed by a 1999 Montreal agreement ratified by Cameroon. According to Peter Ayuk, considerable investments had been pumped into the ODS
phase-out program.

But used fridges, with dreary CFC [Chlorofluorocarbons] amounts from the West, have
continued to be shipped to Africa and Cameroon in particular with ostensibly little or no restrictions whatsoever. The dangerous trend is clearly illustrated by the ever-increasing number of shops in Douala’s streets dealing in second-hand household equipment from Europe and America . Elsewhere petroleum and foam manufacturing companies, and fetilizers brought into
the country also contain CFCs.

“We do not submit the fridges to any form of inspection even at the level of customs. Whether they carry stickers or not, they pass through and I have never had a fridge seized. What they ask for is their money, and once that is paid, we collect the goods without further complications. CFCs? I don’t know what that means, let alone the ozone layer,” Fidelis, a dealer in used imported fridges in Akwa, told The Herald Tuesday despite claims by experts that a communications and sensitization commission was meeting desired goals.

Under the terms of the Montreal Protocol, Cameroon was expected to have phased out 50% of ODS by 2005 and 85% by the end of 2007. Refrigeration appliances are known to contain the bulk of ODS. While CFCs have been discarded in refrigeration equipment in the West in
preference for more environmentally-friendly gases, African countries have become a waste basket for the perilous fridges.