Ghana and Nigeria have resolved to enact national
legal frameworks on the sustainable management of Persistent Organic Pollutant (POPs) contaminated sites in both countries.
They also resolved to ensure the successful implementation of the regional project on POPs due to its disastrous impact on human health and
the environment.
These were contained in a 13-point communiqu� issued at the end of a three-day First Regional Ministerial Committee meeting held in April in Accra.
POPs are chemical substances that persist in the environment and
bio-accumulate through the food web which poses a risk of causing adverse
effects to human health and the environment.
They are derived from pesticides, industrial discharges and elements in
electrical transformers.
Attended by 20 representatives from civil societies, government agencies as well as Ministers of Environment from Ghana and Nigeria, the meeting sought to develop appropriate strategies for identifying sites contaminated by chemicals in the Sub-Region.
Participants were to help develop a sustainable organisational agreement set up for the timely and well-monitored implementation of the project.
The draft policy would be the sub-regional document for the management of contaminated sites in West Africa.
The meeting also reviewed various splinter legislations on toxic chemicals management in the agencies represented and how to synchronize the
laws to help in the management of the sites.
"Underscoring the active support and constructive inputs of all relevant stakeholders to realising the aims of the project, we will
strengthen collaborative efforts among sectors and ensure the integration of their contributions in the implementation", it said.
The Communiqu�, signed by Ms Sherry Ayitey, Minister of Environment, Science and Technology of Ghana and Mr John Odey, Minister of Environment of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, also called for the revival of the Toxic Waste Dump Watch to share information within the sub-region on trans-boundary movements of harzardous waste in the ECOWAS sub-region.
"We also call for improvement in the inter-sectorial collaboration at the national level including Health, Environment, Lands and Natural
Resource, Agriculture Energy and the security Agencies," it said.
Research indicates that POPs accumulate in body fat and pass from mother to foetus in the womb and through breast milk. Such chemicals are
easily transported from their point of release throughout the biosphere especially into the Polar regions by wind and water currents.
"It can stay in the environment for a very a long time without degrading; such chemicals and toxic substances pollute water bodies and
agricultural lands and find their way into food substances.
"For a long time, the natural environment is considered and treated as a self-renewable resource, but we realize today that humanity is sowing the seed of its own destruction by the way we treat the environment", it added.
Although the negative effects of those chemicals affected every farmer who used pesticides, industrial workers were the most vulnerable.
To devise a means of addressing the challenge, the International Community negotiated and agreed on a convention in December 2000 in
Stockholm, Sweden, to which Ghana was a signatory.
The convention, among other things, set out control measures covering the life cycle of POPs from production to disposal.
The convention signed by delegates from 122 countries, also called on all parties to prohibit and take legal action and administrative measures to eliminate the production and use of POPs.