Pesticides banned in the rest of the world are finding their way across Yemen’s borders and into its shops, said the Yemen Society for Consumer Protection, a non-governmental organization in Sana’a.  The statements came as a warning to the Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation on Jan. 13.

It’s not enough for the General Department for Plant Protection, which follows the ministry’s guidelines, to limit the quantities of these pesticides; it must keep them from entering the country in the first place, the YSCP said in its report. The report requests that the ministry to take speedy action to return these poisonous pesticides back to wherever they came from. Pesticides can wreak all sorts of havoc on human and animal health.

About 17,000 Yemeni people are diagnosed with cancer each year, said Dr. Nadeem Mohammed Saeed, the director of the National Oncology Center. “It is often caused by smuggled and banned pesticides used in growing qat, vegetables, and fruits,” said Dr. Nadeem Mohammed Saeed, the director of the National Oncology Center. “It is often caused by smuggled and banned pesticides used in growing qat, vegetables, and fruits,” said Dr. Saeed.

Many pesticides have a poisonous effect on people. Using such pesticides for long periods cause people some serious diseases. About 30 percent of cancer patients have mouth and gum cancer resulting from the use of such pesticides in the agriculture, said Saeed. This is one of the highest rates of this type of cancer in the world.  “The thing which really worries me is that 70 percent of pesticides used in planting qat are illegal and smuggled into the country,” said Ahmed al-Haddad, the head of the Medicine Association in the Faculty of Medicine at Sana’a University.

The consumption of these pesticides is one of the major causes of stomach cancer and renal failure. The Minister of Agriculture and Irrigation has said that his ministry asks officials in the municipality to cooperate to make Sana’a free of pesticides. The Ministry seeks to close all the shops that sell such banned pesticides. He also criticizes the lack of control and the leakage of different types of pesticides into the market. He also mentioned a plan that will attempt to decrease the licenses granted to the stores that import such pesticides.

“In al-Dhal’e, we’ve made every effort to close about 24 stores selling smuggled and banned pesticides and refer their owners for the prosecution. Also, we’ve confiscated a car in Sana’a that was carrying different types of these pesticides. We do a lot of other work to decrease this serious problem,” said Dr. Shawqi al-Dobai, director of the Pesticide Directorate.   

A recent study found that 118 kinds of pesticides are used in Yemen, mostly by qat farmers, according to a study conducted by Abdul-Rahman Alawi bin Yehia, a researcher in the Environmental Studies and Sciences Center at the University of Aden. Yemen imports these pesticides under 555 trade names.  The study revealed that the quantity of pesticides imported during just one year amounts to 1,846,090 tons, and most of them are very dangerous.  

Another study conducted by students of the Faculty of Pharmacy at the University of Aden on the pesticides used in planting qat in Taiz, al-Dhal’e, Lahij, Ibb and Sana’a, found that 47 kinds are used.  According to the study, pesticides cause chronic diseases such as cancer, behavioral changes, and liver and kidney diseases.  The Ministry is ultimately responsible for any health and environmental problems that result from the use of these banned pesticides, says the YSCP. This is not the first warning the YSCP has sent to the Ministry about this issue. The YSCP sent, on December 6th, 2006, a detailed report to the Minister of Agriculture and Irrigation, Dr. Jalal Ibrahim Faqira, when these banned pesticides entered Sana’a. 

According to YSCP, the Ministry permitted five containers, including 19,500 Km/Liter of banned pesticides imported from a Chinese Company called Shaing, to enter the country. These containers were not examined, as they should have been according to a 1999 law passed to regulate the handling of pesticides.  The official documents obtained by the organization show that releasing and transferring this cargo, which included 4,565 cartons of banned pesticides according to a customs report from al-Hodeidah port to the port of Sana’a, is a direct result of exceptional orders made by Jalal Faqira to the Tihama Development Authority.

This is demonstrated by a memorandum from the Tihama Development Authority on October 4th, 2006, sent after it received a memorandum including a request to release the cargo and transfer it to Sana’a. The Yemen Observer acquired a report showing that the pesticides, imported by bin Daghsan Foundation, were transported to Sana’a by representatives of the plant-quarantine and the customs of the port. The containers were opened when Omar Abdullah al-Muqbli, the Security Officer of the Ministry, and representatives of the GDPP were present. 

The containers were also unloaded in four warehouses on Al-Nasr and Mareb streets. The warehouses were locked by GDPP and bin Daghsan foundation, the report said.  According to the report, the GDPP was able to open the warehouses to take samples in the presence of the Foundation. However, the Foundation didn’t have the right to open any of them, without getting permission from the GDPP. The Foundation would be punished if it tried to do so. 

“I gave permission for just 17 kinds of these pesticides, which are not banned, that were included in the cargo to be released from al-Hodeidah port and transported to Sana’a,” said Abdul-Qawi Abdul-Jaleel, the General Director of  the GDPP. “The importer, who is the owner of this cargo, can trick the employee of the plant-quarantine and the customs of the port, and enter the whole cargo, which may have about 27 or 28 kinds of pesticides.

When the whole cargo arrives inside the country, it is reserved in the company’s warehouses, locked by the company itself and by us in Sana’a. Then we make an inventory of the pesticides included in the cargo. We found just one banned kind, called Cafroun 100 GR, which was confiscated. We did not find any problem with the other ones included in the cargo to be uesd in shops, because they are still used in the shops until now,’’ he said.        

According to the organization, the importer did not obtain a previous authorization to import this cargo, as is required by law. Also, it did not give the GDPP samples of these plant-pesticides to be examined, according to the official procedures. Some banned pesticides were included in the cargo, such as Carbofuran, Ecevit, Chloropyrofos, Methomil, and new dangerous ones, such as Methamidaphos, the organization said. Moreover, the list of  pesticides that are permitted for import, as prepared by the GDPP, does not include the five aforementioned pesticides. 

The Yemen Observer acquired another report showing that the importer removed the locks of the warehouses located in al-Nasr Street. It also shows that the warehouses located in the Hafa district, have different entrances, so it is easy for the importer to leak the reserved pesticides out into the market.  Al-Hajj and Muhrez, who wrote the report, asked the General Director of GDPP and the Director of the Pesticide Directorate to be fast in taking the necessary lawful measures, and to inform the ministry’s security officer. 

“Everybody in Yemen has probably been contaminated with some small amount of the banned pesticides. Yemeni children, the young and old people, and even pregnant women cannot avoid the harms caused by these things,” said Abdullah Obadi, a representative of the YSCP.  “I do not know why the YSCP is trying to charge us with trying to distribute some banned plant-pesticides,” said Abdul-Jaleel.

“It knows well that the new leadership of the Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation and the General Department of Plant Protection made the first list of banned pesticides. As a result of using this list, which includes 335 pesticides, the pesticides used in Yemen have decreased from 1024 to 44,” Abdul-Jaleel said. “The YSCP has not charged the GDPP with anything. The report, published by the YSCP, is based on a number of official documents and records,” said Fadhl Moqbel Mansour, Vice Chairman of the YSCP.

“I want to make another thing very clear. Customs will not release any cargo unless it receives an official order. I wonder how such cargo is released from the port authority, without knowing whether these pesticides are banned or not—without testing to show whether they are useable in the different environments in Yemen.” 

“According to the speech of Abdul-Jaleel, there was a banned pesticide included in the cargo. How could this be released from the port and transported to Sana’a? Who allows such a thing to enter? Why is the cargo of these pesticides held in the company’s warehouses? Why is the cargo not returned to its home country?” he asked.

The deception, claimed by Abdul-Jaleel, an employee of the plant-quarantine, is perhaps irrational.” “More than 1000 kinds of the plant-pesticides are still used in the Yemeni shops. Some of them are banned for use in the entire rest of the world,” he said.