NOVEMBER 16-30, 2018 | MOBILITY - DUMPED BY THE RICH

Low-income vehicle importing countries of Africa and South Asia are turning into a scrapyard for old, used and close-to-being-scrapped vehicles of rich nations

- ANUMITA ROYCHOWDHURY

IMPORTING OLD and polluting vehicles, some of which are unfit for the road, is how the low- and middle-income countries are embracing automobiles. The ill-effects of this thriving international used car trade are overshadowed by the glitz of the new vehicles across the world that is constantly adding to the already inflated global fleet of 2 billion.

The scale of dumping from the rich countries to the poor is overwhelming. Back in 2014, it was estimated that globally about 40 million vehicles a year approach their end-of-life, which is 4 per cent of the total global automobile ownership. A lot of these get traded to low- and middle-income countries. This number is expected to explode as the global automobile fleet is slated to double by 2050 on the back of growing economy and aspirations for four-wheelers, estimates the International Energy Agency.