A recent study conducted by Basel Action Network (ban), a us -based lobby group, found that around 500 containers packed with old computers, televisions and mobile phones were arriving every month in Lagos, Nigeria. These electronics come for repair and re-use but an estimated 75 per cent of it gets dumped at official landfill sites or by roadsides and in swamps. "Residents breathing in the fumes from the fires or drawing water from contaminated areas are in danger,' Jim Puckett, a ban official, said.

ban claims this export of useless electronics comes from the us and Europe and is illegal under the Basel Convention governing the international movement of toxic waste.