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Kathmandu Tuesday January 22, 2002 Magh 09, 2058.
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Toxic pesticides
The other day, a Green Peace team completed the
task of cleaning up six tons of banned pesticides stored on the Nepal Agriculture Research
Council premises at Khumaltar. This is the first phase of a clean up campaign undertaken
by the global environmental movement. The multinational companies, which had exported
these pesticides to this country as experimental products, have not come forward with
technical and financial assistance for repackaging and disposing of them. It took almost
three months for Green Peace to pack the six tons of hazardous pesticides. This country
has had to suffer the environmental damage resulting from the delay. Apart from Khumaltar,
more than seventy four tons of such pesticides have been stored at different warehouses in
Amlekhgunj and Nepalgunj for the last two decades. The countries that exported such
hazardous pesticides to this country may take years to ship them back to their places of
origin. The government has, with the help of Green Peace, approached the countries —
Britain, Germany, Japan, the US, the Netherlands, France, Italy and Switzerland —
which dumped the chemicals in Nepal to ship them back. Pesticides such as these have been
banned in developed countries ever since they were found hazardous to human health and the
environment two decades ago. However, there are still a few countries including in the
subcontinent which continue to export the pesticides at great cost to health and
environment in the destination countries.
The banned chemical pesticides — deildin,
organo clorinated mercury and DDT— have been lying in neglect ever since this country
received them in the form of assistance from the developed countries. Of the 12 different
types of deadly persistent organic pollutants (POP) banned by Green Peace’s Stockholm
meeting in 200l, nine are pesticides including DDT which is still widely used in this
country. Until 1990, Nepal had not even realised that such pesticides have been banned in
the developed world. These pesticides have been poorly stored in leaky containers and torn
packaging for the last twenty-five years at different warehouses in the country. Such
toxic substances can cause disorders of the nervous system, cripple the brain and spine
and result in birth defects and kidney problems. The pesticides carelessly stored at
Khumaltar have already polluted the underground water of the valley. Such pesticides
banned in developed countries but dumped in the third world are estimated to total more
than one million tons. Companies that exported such toxic substances to this country for
agriculture purposes have pledged to take them back. However, how long they will take to
ship the toxic substances back where they came from still remains a question. The
government cannot remain mute and passive as it has a duty to the public to dispose of
such substances and prevent any accident. An accident will not only cause environmental
damage but also pose a serious threat to human health in a country that is poor equipped
to handle any such contingency. The government must take the initiative and persuade the
countries responsible that they have a moral if not a legal duty to do the needful and rid
this country of such deadly substances which are the legacy of more naïve times in this
part of the world. |
