World’s Biggest Rubber Farm Alleged to Foul Liberia Water
World’s Biggest Rubber Plantation Alleged to Foul Liberia Water
Firestone Natural Rubber Co., the world’s largest contiguous rubber plantation in Liberia, hasn’t done enough to stop pollutants from its processing factory entering nearby water sources, according to environmental activists.
An indirect subsidiary of Bridgestone Americas Inc., the Firestone plantation opened almost a century ago and is the country’s largest private employer with as many as 5,400 workers. It operates schools on the concession and provides free housing and health care to employees.
Communities near the company’s processing factory beside the Farmington River believe waste from the facility still contaminates rivers, creeks and wells, and the disappearance of fish is threatening their livelihoods. The issues are similar to complaints filed between 2005 and 2010 and part of a “legacy of corporate negligence,” according to Mighty Earth, a Washington-based non-profit organization that focuses on environmental issues and human rights.
“It is totally unacceptable that inadequate treatment of factory effluent is still causing problems over 10 years since Firestone first announced in 2008 that it had completed and was operating a new state-of-the art multimillion dollar water treatment facility,” the organization said in a report.
While Bridgestone set out a series of principles in 2018 to not contribute to deforestation, water pollution and other environmental ills, it has yet to publish a strategy explaining how the policy will be implemented on the ground in Liberia or within its rubber supply chain, Mighty Earth said.
Bridgestone rejected the allegations as “wholly inaccurate and sensationalist,” saying the organization omitted detailed information provided by the company and by Firestone Liberia through in-person meetings and correspondence from August 2019.
“Firestone Liberia stopped the discharge of wastewater into the Farmington River in 2008, and started using a bio-accumulation wetland water treatment system,” Bridgestone said in an emailed statement. “Firestone Liberia is not aware of any health-related incidents arising from the Farmington River, either before or after the implementation of the wetland system.”
Firestone is in the final stages of “permitting, constructing and operating” a new $3 million wastewater system that will reduce the factory’s environmental impact in accordance with Liberian environmental regulations, it said. The system will be fully operational by mid-2020.
Natural rubber accounted for almost 17.5% of Liberia’s export earnings in 2017, according to the African Development Bank.
To contact the reporter on this story: Katarina Hoije in Abidjan at khoije@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Paul Richardson at pmrichardson@bloomberg.net, Pauline Bax, Hilton Shone
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