Development of national action plan for the implementation of the Rotterdam Convention: Pakistan

Introduction

The Ministry of Environment, Government of Pakistan is striving for environmental protection and pollution control in Pakistan. Safe use of chemicals and environmentally sound management of hazardous chemical wastes are the corner stone of the National Environmental Policy.

The International Cooperation (IC) Wing of the Ministry of Environment deals with the issues related to safe management of hazardous chemicals and wastes under various agreements such as the Basel Convention, the Stockholm Convention, the Rotterdam Convention, the Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (SAICM), the Montreal Protocol and the Kyoto Protocol.

The IC Wing arranges for several activities, aimed at enhancing capacity within the country to tackle the newly arising issues related to wise use of certain hazardous chemicals and safe disposal of harmful wastes.

Some chemicals and their by-products need careful evaluation before being released to the environment, while the use of certain other chemicals need to be banned or restricted in order to avoid environmental degradation and to combat rising levels of pollution.

The Joint Secretary, IC Wing, is the Designated National Authority (DNA) for the Rotterdam Convention. The DNA is striving for implementation of PIC procedure in the country. A participatory decision-making process has been adopted. In order to obtain active participation of stakeholders, the IC Wing occasionally organizes stakeholders dialogue and consultations.

One such national consultation workshop on the development of national action plan for the implementation the Rotterdam Convention was held in Islamabad from 26 to 29 June 2007 in collaboration with the Rotterdam Convention Secretariat and FAO for national capacity building. The consultation involved a wide range of stakeholders from the government, the civil society, the private sector, industrial and research organizations as well as professionals from the academia. The objective was to actively pursue the agenda of safer use and trade in the chemicals which could be otherwise harmful to human health and the environment.

The enhancement in capability of the concerned government officials and other stakeholders, will lead us towards development of a national action plan for the implementation of the Rotterdam Convention on certain hazardous chemicals.

The Ministry of Environment is actively pursuing creation of a strong technical cadre within the Ministry to cater for the future needs in respect of timely and effective decision making regarding various environmental issues and the international obligations. A National Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs) Secretariat has been established in the Ministry. The Secretariat will give inputs to the Ministry on various technical issues.

The national consultative workshop on the development of national action plan for the implementation of the Rotterdam Convention, from 26-29 June, 2007, is very productive. The deliberations of the delegates will go a long way towards developing mechanisms for safe management of chemicals and wastes in Pakistan.

The opinions solicited from the technical experts and the valuable suggestions put forth by the learned participants will be reflected in the future strategies and plans devised in light of requirements/obligations under the Rotterdam Convention.

Brief background

Pakistan signed the Rotterdam Convention in September 1999 and ratified it on 14^th July 2005.

In recent years, the Government of Pakistan has made significant efforts to establish and improve the national infrastructure for the management of chemicals. The Rotterdam Convention should assist the Government to further improve national infrastructure in chemicals and pesticides management.

The Government of Pakistan has two Designated National Authorities (DNAs). The Ministry of Environment (MoE) deals with industrial chemicals (under the RC) while the Plant Protection Department of the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock (MINFAL) deals with pesticides.

Purpose of the meeting

With the technical assistance of the Secretariat of the Rotterdam Convention and in cooperation with the Regional office of the FAO for Asia and Pacific and UNEP, a national consultation to support development of national action plan for the implementation of the Rotterdam Convention was held in Islamabad from 26-29 June, 2007.

The overall objective of this consultation was to facilitate a national dialogue involving relevant stakeholders on the Rotterdam Convention to review the current status of implementation and to identify the guidelines to develop a national action plan for the implementation of the Convention in Pakistan.

The consultation gave an opportunity to:

• Ensure the understanding of the aims, objectives and requirements of the Convention;
• Foster inter-departmental or inter-ministerial cooperation among the stakeholders in the implementation of the Convention;
• Develop, in a structured setting, a national action plan or strategy for the implementation of Rotterdam Convention.

Pakistan has actively participated in FAO programmes on IPM and pesticides management. Given the fact that all these programmes are dealing with chemicals and pesticides management, it would be helpful to involve the lead agencies responsible for these ongoing relevant activities. The forum provided an opportunity to exchange experiences and identify possibility for collaboration.

Participants from various ministries, public and private sector organizations (Appendix I) deliberated on issues and challenges; provided valuable inputs, suggestions and recommendations for practicable and possible solutions; and thus helped in setting the stage for further inter-ministerial and institutional cooperation to ensure follow-up of the meeting.

Implementation of the Rotterdam Convention

(a) Current status

Twenty eight pesticides subject to the PIC procedure under the RC have already been banned in Pakistan. The import response from Pakistan for 26 pesticides has been communicated to the RC Secretariat. However, the import responses of methyl parathion and heptachlor need to be worked out.

Pakistan has not provided the RC Secretariat any export/import response on any of the industrial chemicals. However, Poly Chlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs) have been banned and included in the List of Banned Items of the Government of Pakistan Trade Policy 2006. There is a need to inform the RC Secretariat of the banning of PCBs in Pakistan and to work out a strategy to deal with the remaining ten industrial chemicals in accordance with national priorities set in consultation with all the stakeholders.

The MINFAL has an Agricultural Pesticides Technical Advisory Committee (APTAC) responsible for making appropriate decisions on the information and recommendations given by the APTAC-Sub-Committee. The APTAC-Sub-Committee reviews and evaluates all concerns of pesticides in Pakistan. Since the official forum to deal with industrial chemicals does not exist, the consolidated data on the industrial chemicals under the RC has not been collected for the import response.

The APTAC set up by the MINFAL evaluates all pesticides to avoid Severely Hazardous Pesticide Formulations (SHPFs). The eco-toxicological tests are done by various research laboratories. No SHPF is recommended unless it is evaluated by eco-toxicological labs.

(b) Gaps in capacity to meet the RC obligations

• Mechanisms for inter-ministerial interaction, the public and private sectors, academic research and decision makers need to be created and updated.
• Technical capacity constraints do exist within the Government and other organizations.
• Difficulties are faced in collecting technical information for making decisions on pesticides and industrial chemicals.
• No effective infrastructure to monitor and report cases of poisoning by pesticides and industrial chemicals.
• No consolidated database on the status of chemicals usage, manufacture, formulation and import.
• The consolidated data on the industrial chemicals under the RC have not been collected for import response.

(c) Actions needed to fill the gaps

• A chemical review committee to look into and evaluate all industrial chemicals in Pakistan should be established. The committee should also develop procedures/mechanisms for inter-ministerial interaction, communication among the public and private sectors, academic research and decision makers.
• The RC Secretariat may provide continuous support for capacity and capability development at national and regional levels.
• The infrastructure to monitor and report cases of poisoning by pesticides and industrial chemicals should be established as soon as possible.
• A consolidated national database/chemical profile on the status of chemicals and pesticides usage, manufacture, formulation and import should be developed with the assistance of the RC Secretariat.

Priorities for action

1. Import responses for the remaining two pesticides (methyl parathion and heptachlor) need to be updated and intimated to the RC Secretariat.
2. Import response for 11 industrial chemicals need to be intimated to the RC Secretariat.
3. Poly Chlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs), which have already been banned, need to be communicated to the RC Secretariat.
4. The information on the status of the remaining five banned industrial chemicals together with the five banned asbestos categories need to be collected for import response on priority basis.
5. The already banned pesticides other than the 28 RC pesticides should be notified to the RC Secretariat.
6. Local criterion should be established to notify pesticides/chemicals to the RC Secretariat.

Consolidated set of tables based on the recommendations of the participants

Import response

Notification

Export notification

Proposals for SHPF

Appendix 1: List of participants