KARACHI: National strategy to ban poisonous chemicals stressed
By Mukhtar Alam
KARACHI, Sept 18: The Pakistan government should ratify the Stockholm Convention aimed at ending the use of some most poisonous chemicals and ensure a scientific elimination of pesticides and other hazardous chemical stockpiles from the country.
These views were expressed by speakers at a workshop/stakeholders dialogue on action plan or national implementation plan for the elimination of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) held at a local hotel here on Monday. The event was organised by the Sindh Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) in collaboration with the Pakistan EPA and UNDP.
The speakers observed that some pesticides including DDT, industrial compounds and undesired byproducts were either being smuggled in to Pakistan or being manufactured within the country, which in turn affected the quality of life of the masses.
The hazardous storage and handling of POPs invite irreversible and debilitating damage on the entire ecosystem and species populations including humans, and particularly the fetuses and infants which are exposed to these chemicals via the placenta, breast feeding and other pathways during the critical early years of human development, a couple of experts reminded.
The participants were told that Pakistan adopted the Stockholm Convention on POPs in December 2001 but was yet to ratify it. So far 151 countries have signed the international treaty designed to end the production and use of some of the world’s most poisonous chemicals including Aldrin, Chlordane, DDT, Dieldrin, Toxaphene, Mirex, Endrin, Heptachlor and HexachloroBenzene (HBC).
Giving a presentation on the proposed national implementation plan of the Stockholm Convention on POPs, Dr Safdar Ali, a UNDP consultant, said that there were about 430 sites in the country, including the highest 205 of Sindh, where about 6,000 metric tones of obsolete POPs containing pesticides were lying in violation to the Stockholm Convention.
He gave the details of an action plan for the elimination of pesticides POPs and rational management of obsolete stocks/contaminated sites, which included complete survey of other stock sites and a phase-wise elimination by 2015, review of the work and plan with regular interval and launching of awareness campaigns for the masses on the issue of hazardous chemicals and pesticides.
Dr Ali said that there was a need to strengthen the legislative infrastructure for the control of POPs and enforcement, particularly in relation to POPs pesticides. Establishment of a legally constituted coordinating mechanism for regular consultation among all stakeholders on implementation of the Stockholm Convention by 2007 was also a must, he added.
Dr Usman Mustafa, another UNDP consultant discussed the problems of Dioxins and Furans and said that dioxins were formed as an unintentional byproduct of many industrial processes involving chlorine such as waste incineration, chemical and pesticide manufacturing and pulp and paper bleaching.
Dr Sagir Ahmad Jafri of the University of Lahore talked about polychlorinated biphenyle (PCB), which is used in very wide variety of electrical equipments/ transformers because of its suitability for controlled current supply, but needed to be eliminated due to its hazardous effects on human health and environment.
Referring to a couple of research and related data acquired from different power companies, he said that the presence of PCBs in transformers and sites involved in transformer or oil storage had been established in the country and transformers leaking oil containing PCBs were a great risk to human health both when those were in operation or were left unattended once damaged.
He said that legislation should be strengthened for imposing ban on export or import of the PCBs, phasing out of PCB containing transformers, examination of PCB polluted areas and electrical equipment and cleaning of PCB polluted areas.
Dr Jafri also expressed concern over the fact that no proper waste disposal procedure was available at any of the four transformer reclamation workshops in Pakistan and oil used in it was regenerated under local technology and the sludge thrown into the river, while on the other hand affluent produced from washing of transformers was drained into the underground drainage system.
Dr Mehmood Khwaja of the Sustainable Development Policy Institute, Islamabad, emphasised that the Stockholm Convention should be ratified by Pakistan as well so that it could acquire financial and technical assistance to dispose of the blacklisted chemicals stockpiles and could have a say as a regular member in the next year’s meeting of “Conference of Parties” under the convention.
So far 131 countries are signatories to the convention, including Sudan which signed the treaty in August 2006, out of which 32 countries have submitted their national implementation plan, including Ecuador, which submitted the plan in August 2006, and thus were under obligation to prohibit and/or take legal and administrative measures necessary to eliminate or reduce POPs’ releases from international production and its uses, Dr Khwaja added.
Giving his presidential remarks, the adviser to chief minister on environment and alternative energy, Mohammad Noman Saigol, said that environment overall had been a core issue of the society and thus there was a need to identify befitting corrective measures to prevent diseases and health hazards.
Emphasising over the role of the monitoring sector in environment related development, the adviser noted that the monitoring needed a fully capacitated mechanism involving the local agencies and organisations, particularly the EPAs. We need to strengthen Sindh EPA and other bodies and the federal government shall extend its support in this regard, he added. He once again asked the industries to do away with anti-environment practices and it would be in the fitness of things if they would have environmental audit in the case of existing ones and environmental impact assessment for those planning to start operation.
Earlier, the senior special fellow of United Nations Institute of Training and Research, Dr John A. Haines, said that Pakistan should ratify the convention and formulate its action plan in line with the outlines of the convention at the earliest. He said that the future actions should be based on researches and identification of pesticide sites and other problems in all the provinces.
The director-general of Sindh EPA, Abdul Malik Ghouri, and the national project manager of POPs Enabling Activity Project, Syed Zaheer Gilani, also spoke. Mr Gilani said that Pakistan had already disbanded the POPs hazardous to life, while the action plan for their safe elimination or storage would also be finalised by the end of December 2006.
