Côte d’Ivoire is seeking up to €340-million from Dutch-based multinational Trafigura to clear up pollution that killed 15 people, in a draft settlement proposal seen by Agence France-Presse.
This would be in addition to the €152-million already agreed by Trafigura in February in an out-of-court settlement in the wake of the August 2006 incident that affected thousands of Abidjan residents.
Trafigura rejected the proposal.
Trafigura had chartered a ship, which unloaded nearly 600 tonnes of caustic soda and petroleum residues that were then dumped by a local firm at 16 open-air public waste sites across the economic capital of the West African country.
As the stench from the waste spread across the city, more than 100 000 people sought medical attention, 15 died and 69 were hospitalised.
In the February settlement, Trafigura also agreed to cover the identification and additional cleaning up of any sites still containing waste.
The settlement proposal drawn up by the Ivorian authorities estimated the cost at between €61-million over five years and €340-million over 10 years, if underground water supplies were found to have been contaminated.
”Trafigura completely rejects the figures announced in the draft agreement,” one of its representatives said. ”It is a unilateral document emanating from Ivorian state lawyers and which commits only its authors.”
Four months after the initial agreement by Trafigura, the victims and their dependents have yet to receive their share of compensation and are threatening to take to the streets if it is not paid out.
President Laurent Gbagbo on Thursday called for calm, saying he wants ”to carry out the operation of compensation with all the necessary rigour and transparency”.
The French company Tredi was hired to clear up the waste and began work in September. But it stopped work in March, saying it lacked government authorisation to remove the remaining waste.
Tredi spokesperson Henri Petitgrand said on Friday the company is still waiting for permission. — Sapa-AFP