Editorial: Ban is irreversible!

It becomes increasingly surprising when as a country we are unable to adhere to policies and programmes that we adopt with the objective of achieving certain ends. What comes to mind in this instance is the clamour by importers and exporters for government to lift the ban on importation of used refrigerators into the country.

Their argument that the majority of Ghanaians cannot purchase new fridges is untenable because the ban was backed by Legislative Instrument (LI) 1932, 2008, therefore it is not possible to violate the Act.

With the energy crisis that has hit the country in recent times, it is expected that importers of second-hand fridges would have realised by now that their products are responsible for emitting high volumes of chlorofluorocarbons (CFC).

Since the late 1970s, the use of CFCs has been heavily regulated because of their destructive effects on the ozone layer. By 1987, in response to a dramatic seasonal depletion of the ozone layer over Antarctica, diplomats in Montreal forged a treaty, the Montreal Protocol, which called for drastic reductions in the production of CFCs.

On March 2, 1989, 12 European Community nations agreed to ban the production of all CFCs by the end of the century. In 1990, diplomats met in London and voted to significantly strengthen the Montreal Protocol by calling for a complete elimination of CFCs by the year 2000. By the year 2010 CFCs should have been completely eliminated from developing countries as well.

The ban on second-hand fridges in the country was enforced because used fridges consume a lot of electricity. Refrigerators usually contain a compressor which loses 10 percent of its efficiency when it works for a year.

Thus, the energy consumption of a used fridge doubles when it works close to 10 years; and in most cases these fridges are not made for the tropics -- and even it is only slightly used, it still consumes a lot of electrical power which must of necessity be conserved in these times of energy rationing.

In fact, the ban is not taken seriously since some importers are looking for the ban to be lifted. This is buttressed by the fact that recently the Energy Commission had to transport about 15 seized containers from the Takoradi Port to the scrap-yard.

Hence, the ban has not penetrated into the minds of Ghanaians and some importers are nursing the hope that government will lift the ban so that they can continue to import these destructive products.

According to the Executive Secretary of the Energy Commission, Ofosu Ahenkorah, each of the containers has about 120 used fridges. He added that nine containers had also been moved from Tema with 50 more to be conveyed later. All this demonstrates that the country is still grappling with phasing out the use of second-hand imported fridges.