Proposed Hazardous Pesticides Plant in Tanzania
—residents protest against construction

Residents in the northern Tanzanian town of Moshi, are trying to block the production of hazardous pesticides in their town. Construction is currently under way of a plant designed to produce widely-banned pesticides such as dieldrin, aldrin and BHC . Other persistent or hazardous pesticides such as lindane, endosulfan, atrazine, simazine, carbaryl and paraquat would also be manufactured or formulated at the facility.

    The owner of the plant, Pesticides Manufactures Limited (PML), is a wholly owned subsidiary of National Chemicals Industries (NCI), which is owned by the Tanzanian Government. The factory was made possible by a US$11.88 million ‘soft loan’ by the Italian Government. Construction of the plant started in 1989 amid much public outcry. Citizens are concerned that extremely hazardous  products will be produced in the middle of a residential area. The case has been a frequent subject of discussion in the Tanzanian Parliament.

    In May 1992, 628 residents of Moshi filed a civil suit in the High Court of Tanzania asking the Court to issue a permanent injunction against NCI and PML to stop them commissioning or operating the plant. On the first day of the hearing, the Court issued a temporary order to restrain NCI and PML from commissioning the plant, but allowed the construction of the factory to continue.

    In the court hearings, NCI and PML stated that their new proposal will “omit all products which have been banned elsewhere in the world”. They also claim that the plant will not “produce any harmful chemicals”. The legal status of the claim is not clear, neither is the definition of ‘harmful chemicals’ since most pesticides are generally accepted to be potentially harmful. The case continues.

Topsy Jewell, Greenpeace International, 26 August 1993.

[This article first appeared in Pesticides News No.21,September 1993, page 13]