Helping the Caribbean establish a strong framework to prevent the careless disposal of harmful chemicals is the mission of the Project Steering Committee of the Implementing Sustainable Low and Non-Chemical Development Programme in Small Island Developing States.
Co-ordinated through the United Nations Global Environment Facility and the Basel Convention Regional Centre, members from 12 countries gathered in Tobago to discuss the way forward.
Chair of the National Working Committee for the GEF Islands Project, Anthony Headley, explained that over the past five years, they have been working on a project to equip Caribbean governments with the tools to manage harmful chemicals and their disposal.
“A lot of the systems in the country are immature, and this project is bringing the governance infrastructures in place; it’s improving some of the outdated legislation through making recommendations to target a more science-based approach to chemicals management.”
He said this is necessary because, even though Caribbean countries are not producers of harmful chemicals, they are consumers.
“Even though you may have what we classify as residual chemicals, small amounts of those poisons can have a devastating impact if it is placed in the wrong location on our ecosystem.”
After facing some challenges in implementation, the project will be extended for a further two years.
Environmental Specialist with the Global Environment Facility (GEF), Jewel Batchasingh, said: “The project does have a lot more implementation to do, and this is why we now have allocated an additional two years to ensure that all of the outputs are achieved because the tangible outputs on the ground are now happening.”
Mr Headley explained that one major challenge is the lack of experts within the region.
“Part of the challenge therefore for this particular project is that it’s tackling almost all of the problems simultaneously and because we don’t have the level of expertise both in the private sector and in the public sector.”
Despite the setbacks and the extended timelines, Ms Batchasingh stated that countries have started making legislative and policy changes.
“So you actually have many of them actually rolling out some of their looking at legislation, changing policies, utilising some of the outputs on pilot projects, etc, and sharing that information so a lot is online with the digital learning hub and really trying to get that message out to the public.”
In Trinidad and Tobago, the Government has started implementing policies and legislation, including the Waste Management Rules 2021, the Eliminating Hazardous Chemicals From Supply Chain Programme and the Pesticides and Toxic Chemicals Act, to align with the recommendations from GEF.