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90% Of Imported Vehicles Are Dangerous To Africans – NGO

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90% Of Imported Vehicles Are Dangerous To Africans – NGO

Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), an NGO says about 90% of the vehicles imported into Africa are old and injurious to the health of Africans.

Ms Priyanka Chandola, the Programme Manager, Clean Air and Sustainable Mobility Programme of CSE said this after a study was conducted on used vehicles and reported in Abuja.

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She called for the urgent need for intervention from the global world to stop the unregulated dumping of used vehicles in Africa to reduce health and climate risks.

She said that the action plan was to enforce stringent measures to stop end-of-life, unsafe, damaged and recalled vehicles from entering the market.

About 85 per cent of the vehicles in Ethiopia, 80 per cent in Kenya and 90 per cent in Nigeria are second-hand, while the vehicle ownership rate in Africa is lower than the world average, the growth rate has increased.

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“The global community which has, time and again, expressed its deep concern about the deteriorating air quality in the southern world, cannot look away from this problem of dumping anymore.

“If this continues unchecked, without the exporting countries sharing the responsibility of addressing this problem, the poorer countries will not be able to meet their clean air and climate mitigation goals,” she said.

Chindola noted that although it may not be reasonable to ban all used vehicles from being imported due to the affordability levels, however, she suggested that age restriction and high taxes should be placed on the vehicles to eliminate the dirty stream

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According to her, though several countries have increased taxes on older vehicles, these are seen more as a revenue source than a deterrent for imports.

Our correspondent reports that many companies that make vehicles, including Volkswagen, Ford and Toyota have had cause to recall many of its new vehicles over emissions that harm the environment. None so far has been reported to be recalled from Africa.