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Ratify, implement Bamako Convention, SRADev tells FG

Ratify, implement Bamako Convention, SRADev tells FG

Maureen Ihua-Maduenyi

A non-governmental organisation, Sustainable Research and Action for Environmental Development Nigeria, says it has become worrisome that the country has failed to ratify the Bamako Convention, 20 years after it came into force.

The Bamako Convention on the ban on the import into Africa and the control of transboundary movement and management of hazardous wastes within the continent is a treaty of African nations prohibiting the import of any hazardous waste, including radioactive waste, and was negotiated by 12 nations of the Organisation of African Unity, now African Union, at Bamako, Mali in January, 1991, but came into force in 1998.

The Executive Director, SRADev, Leslie Adogame, ahead of the second meeting of conference of the parties to the Bamako Convention, scheduled to take place in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire from January 2018 28 to 30, said Nigeria, which should play a lead role in the continent, had inadvertently lagged behind 29 other African nations.

“Nigeria’s delaying ratifying the Bamako Convention after 20 years of its coming into force is a bad omen for a toxic-free country and continent; it is simply not enough to sign the convention without ratification to implement it,” Adogame said.

According to him, to date, the convention has 29 Signatories and 25 parties but regrettably, Nigeria is yet to ratify and implement it since its signatory in 1998.

The Senior Programme Officer, SRADev, Faith Osa-Egharevba, said Nigeria’s continued observer status since COP1 in 2013 simply meant no voice in the continent’s negotiation and ongoing efforts to implement the treaty.

Adogame noted that globally, environmentally sound management of hazardous wastes was the subject of Chapter 20 of Agenda 21 of the treaty, while effective control of the generation, storage, treatment, recycling and reuse, transport, recovery and disposal of hazardous wastes was, according to Agenda 21,  of paramount importance for proper health, environmental protection and natural resource management and sustainable development.

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He stated, “Among the overall targets of Chapter 20 are ratifying and full implementation of the Bamako Convention on the Ban of the Import into Africa and the Control of Transboundary Movement and Management of Hazardous Wastes within Africa; and eliminating the export of hazardous wastes to countries that prohibit such imports.

“In Africa, the impetus for the Bamako Convention arose also from the realisation that many developed nations were exporting toxic wastes to Africa. Moreover, ratification and implementation of the convention has become expedient since Nigeria very recently signed a pact with Russia to build and operate a nuclear power plant despite concerns about poor quality control, safety and waste management.

“Furthermore, in ‘The Future We Want’, the outcome document of Rio+20 (2012), Nigeria reaffirmed her commitment to achieve, by 2020, the sound management of chemicals throughout their life cycle and of hazardous waste in ways that lead to minimisation of significant adverse effects to human health and the environment, as set out in the Johannesburg Plan Of Implementation.”

He noted that Nigeria had consistently reiterated diplomatic support for the United Nations in all its efforts, including the attainment of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and should be committed to the implementation of the convention too.

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