Tunisie Verte member Hamdi Chebaane says ‘big lobbies of corruption are at play’ in the country following the sacking of the Minister of Environment.
Development Diaries understands that Tunisie Verte is a coalition of environmental non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in the Maghreb nation.
The minister, Mustapha Aroui, was sacked and arrested on 20 December, 2020, over the shipment of hundreds of containers of household waste from Italy to the North African country.
AFP reported that Tunisian customs officials in the port city of Sousse seized 282 containers this summer.
It was gathered that they were declared to be carrying plastic scraps for industrial recycling, but were instead filled with mixed, putrid household waste, which is barred from import under Tunisian law.
The containers were imported in two shipments by Tunisian firm Soreplast, which claimed to have government permission to import and recycle industrial plastic scraps.
It is understood that 12 people have since been taken into custody, including Aroui.
Also detained were officials of the National Waste Recycling Agency (Anged), customs service and national environmental protection agency, the owner of a private laboratory and a Tunisian diplomat in Naples.
‘The waste that is currently in these containers is collected household waste which, according to the treaty, is classified as hazardous waste and should not be exported to developing countries unable to treat it’, Chebaane, who is a waste management expert, said.
He said the ministry had come under heavy pressure in recent years from businessmen demanding that they be allowed to import waste.
Source: African News
Photo source: Getty Images
