April 2008

Supporting Regional Efforts to Reduce PCB Releases through Improved Electrical Equipment Management in Francophone Africa

Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are listed in the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants which seeks to control and, in time, eliminate their production, trade and use, and to ensure that their treatment as waste is carried out in an environmentally sound manner.

An assessment of national PCB preliminary inventory data indicates that francophone African countries served by the Basel Convention Regional Centre (BCRC-Afr) in Dakar Senegal hold an estimated 4,785 transformers containing PCBs and a further 17,362 transformers in which the dielectric fluid is contaminated by PCBs at a level greater than the Convention limit of 50 mg/kg.

The public electrical utilities are estimated to hold in excess of 80% of this equipment but are hampered in their efforts to improve management standards because access to international services is difficult and expensive. Furthermore, the relatively small market for environmentally sound waste management in each country inhibits local investment by competent service providers. Current local waste management of PCB equipment results in uncontrolled PCB releases from unprotected metal reclamation or, worse, the selling of PCB oils for local open uses. Such uses pose significant health and environmental risks and are not permitted under the Stockholm and Basel Conventions.

The need to address these risks by pooling together the limited capacity and resources of individual countries via a sub-regional approach has been identified as a priority in the Environment Action Plan of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD).

UNEP and the BCRC-Afr, working with the Secretariat of the Basel Convention and the West Africa Power Pool, are currently designing a project to address this priority through a harmonised and concerted effort by 14 participating countries.  The project will build capacity and harmonize national efforts in order to:

• Implement environmentally sound management of PCB equipment in service to remove it from high-risk locations, to reduce releases of PCBs and to prevent cross-contamination of non-PCB equipment; and
• Provide viable and sustainable opportunities for the environmentally-sound management and treatment of PCB wastes.

The project seeks to transform market conditions in the region and provide an opportunity for private-sector service providers to deliver cost-effective and environmentally-sound waste management services for PCB oils, equipment and wastes while building national and regional capacities.