The Toxic E-Waste Trade Killing Pakistan's Poorest

every year 50 million tons of electronic waste is thrown out 75 of the waste illegally ends up in the landfills of third world countries like india bangladesh china and some african countries pakistan has now become a dumping ground too computers fridges televisions and unwanted old devices find a new life here bringing employment to thousands of pakistani people but the health and environmental consequences are monstrous electronic pollution destroys everything this represents a huge setback for a country that doesn't have the means to remedy this pollution karachi the economic and financial capital of pakistan with its 20 million inhabitants this is one of the largest cities in the world an incontrollable and ultra violent city in the city centre a step away from the electronics grand bazaar gulam is receiving his goods hundreds of computers that arrive straight from the harbor is one of the main electronic waste importers in pakistan discovered the potential of this market 10 years ago his alibaba cabin is packed with broken keyboards computers and printers foreign this 42 year old tycoon owns two other enormous warehouses he has employed around 30 people and is proud of his success and having is foreign all of his supplies go through his associates in dubai the hub of the region's electronic waste and wholesale the associates make it seem as if they are functioning second-hand products hard for customers to tell the difference foreign every year almost 4 million tons of electronic waste coming mainly from europe and the us is spilled out onto karachi's harbor much that could have been repaired by the manufacturers or distributors in the native countries i think over the period the people have realized that uh getting it recycled in the developed countries underdeveloped countries is much cheaper rather than doing it their own countries and may maybe they're having the environmental concerns of the recycling so it's just a nimby attitude not at my backyard somebody's else's backyard this is part of the equalization the world is becoming a one uh trade center so one material which may be a waste for the other can be something for earning for the other country and the e-waste is just like that according to the um pakistan is earning as much on electronic waste recycling as it is earning on drug trafficking that is to say millions of euros the business has slowly developed a structure and has come to be of particular interest to wholesalers like nasir who specializes in dvd readers and cd foreign 900 devices for 500 euros he is hoping to earn twice as much by selling them to a scrap metal merchant who will disassemble them foreign but not everyone earns as much as gulam and nasir in shersha just a few kilometers away this waste will be recycled for a lower price shersha one of the most dangerous neighborhoods in karachi is located on the border of lyari having been taken over by rival gangs the authorities have no control over the area everything has been recycled here for the past 30 years motors cars even vessels the massive arrival of electronic waste has created an informal substance economy that feeds 150 000 people there are primitive shops at every street corner however no health or environmental regulations are in place fiesa and akbar own this recycling shop every day the two brothers receive hundreds of kilos of waste from all over the world foreign they will extract silver copper steel and brass from even the smallest cable and sell it per gram the working conditions are rough there are very few tools and no health protection the men work without masks glasses or gloves they work 10 hours a day surrounded by nauseating smells the brothers are about to get to the motherboards they use a blowtorch to search for rare elements precious metals that are indispensable to electronic devices and for a few grams of gold in the smart cards yes is this waste releases smoke that is full of dioxide or monoxide carbonate inhaling this smoke is extremely toxic for the lungs and the brain resignation isn't an option in pakistan every second person lives off one euro per day foreign the brothers make two euros this is the only income for their family of six the father lost his job after an accident he was working in cheshire collecting copper the two brothers are still not able to make as much as their father did foreign are uneducated the people who are involved were not aware of what they are handling so they may not totally aware of what is what is the danger for their health what is the danger for the environment or how it can be damaging so although the awareness has increased but not in the communities which are involved in the recycling business for them it's a matter of business so they may be handling those toxic material to me handling the dangerous material but not being aware of what what the consequences can be in shersha everyone ends up being poisoned by electronic waste lead cadmium and mercury is progressively polluting the neighborhood even those who don't work get sick yet no one seems to worry akbar's mother moniba has always lived here ever since she was born she has been breathing polluted air she's suffering from stomach upsets skin diseases and is often affected by allergies during certain months she spends half of her son's income on medicine but often sees no results foreign the toxic gases have reached akbar's lungs a 21 year old young man is living on borrowed time today akbar has decided to get a health check up on the other side of town dr asif khan specializes in breathing problems he has been working in karachi for five years and is constantly busy foreign foreign foreign thank you very much the the e-waste recycling can cause a whole spectrum of health problems ranging from the skin problems to digestive issues to even neurological illnesses and obviously as the magnitude of the industry is growing so is the magnitude of the health problems subjected to cancer neurological and breathing illnesses recycling workers have the lowest life expectancy in the country four million people die every year for causes linked to electronic waste despite the risks to his life akbar cannot do without his job arriving back home in the evening he continues his work piece by piece the waste and their toxic substances are located in the center of the household the entire family are exposed to them but these precautions are the risery in shersha everyone knows that when someone starts to work in recycling they lose 10 years of their life but not only does the electronic waste affect the workers and their families health it is also harmful to the environment shersha is one of the most polluted neighborhoods in pakistan groundwater is contaminated on the banks of the lyari river amongst the landfill toxic residues are being burnt their poison pours out slowly into the water and the soil i was grown in the vicinity of cheshire my school used to be there right at the bank of lyari river and as a student we used to go to this river to catch fish it used to be a clean environment it so we have paid a heavy price for just dumping our liquid and solid waste in larry river and turning it to a uh just only a gutter lines or is it just only a waste line is a destruction of the environment that i have seen with my own eyes so i have grown in the area so i can realize and it it touches my heart when i go to that area and see the level of pollution are some of the rare activists that have dared to enter this area both of them work for the ngo wwf is is are going to warn these children's parents about electro smog foreign foreign foreign foreign malika is an immigrant who fled the north of the country and the taliban she was hoping to find work and a peaceful life in sheriff now she is worried about her eldest daughter who has been bedridden for the past few days the local clinic was not able to tell her more about her condition foreign uses part of the family budget on clean drinking water but it doesn't seem to help her daughter is getting worse by the day foreign many such families dream of leaving shersha but they cannot afford to do so the authorities are powerless in the face of the e-waste pollution's magnitude it has become a problem and we are aware but uh keeping in view the priority we focus other ways if if we talk of the just solid waste mutual solid ways of karachi it is currently it is around more than 12 000 tons per day the wastewater which is whether it is treated are untreated both are mixed and ultimately disposed through this river to the arabic sea the arabic sea is just off the karachi river and is now contaminated by e-waste pollution a whole community is in danger the fisherman's community representing more than two million people in pakistan foreign foreign the material which is coming out of the evs from pakistan other countries they are again going back to the developed countries uh for reuse so it is not this is a big cycle so it is just ultimately these materials some of the materials which are taken out of the uh this e-waste of no use for this nation at present but it is being of great use for the nations which are using it which means china and even the european countries and america or other places where these material can be used for creating other electronic materials so it is a cycle it is a big cycle dismantled in pakistan and reused in china or elsewhere nothing seems to be stopping this vicious cycle of e-waste trafficking not even the laws reinforcing the basal convention this is an alarming situation in the face of a growing global consumption of computers and cell phones if nothing is done the electronic revolution will continue to have devastating effects in the meantime shersha an open wound in the heart of karachi continues to absorb the aftermath of e-waste recycling you

Channel: Journeyman Pictures

Views: 1,323,187

Rating: 4.6602011 out of 5

Keywords: journeyman pictures, news, current affairs, world news, documentary, pakistan, globalisation, e-waste, computers, ecology, environment, poverty

Id: axYKPbr9_MA

Length: 28min 11sec (1691 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 11 2016

Reddit Comments

[u/Temetka]

I just took a couple hundred pounds of old servers and workstations to the local e-cycle place the other day. Stuff my clients didn't want any more and since I no longer hoard hardware - off it went. Curious where it will end up.

[u/someRandomUser123]

Interesting video. Reminded me that I should probably get rid of the old motherboards and other trash lying around my bedroom.