‘Chemical waste management must for industrial growth’
By Adnan Rafique

ISLAMABAD—Minister of State for Environment, Malik Amin Aslam Wednesday underlined the need for effective chemical waste management for industrial growth and better healthcare in the country.
“Multi-faceted policies, capacity building and technical expertise may help achieve this goal,” the minister said addressing the 2-day workshop on chemical waste management.
The Inception Workshop on “Strengthening Governance, CivilSociety Participation and Partnerships within an Integrated National Chemical Waste Management” was organized by the Pakistan. Environmental Protection Agency (Pak-EPA) in collaboration with UNITAR, IOMC and the Swiss Government.
The minister also described the data collection on waste generation and awareness raising among the people as key components for any future national level policy formulation and to addressing the chemical waste handling issues.
He said it is appreciable that Pakistan has been selected forinitiating the chemical waste management mechanism among the 44 countries identified for this purpose. The minister called upon the developed countries to ensure easy transfer of technology to developing countries for coping with the challenges emerging out of the chemical waste related pollution and health hazards.
He said indiscriminate management of the waste caused serious health hazards in the past and reiterated the government’s resolve to fulfil its obligations for initiating governance mechanism and laying down administrative structure for chemical waste management. “But the government alone cannot achieve this goal withoutcooperation by the civil society and the international agencies,” he added. Amin Aslam said the Environment Ministry was committed tosafeguarding present and future generation from the hazardous chemical waste.
He hoped the workshop will come up with concrete proposals forsetting the future course of activities to address the issue of chemical waste.
Additional Secretary Ministry of Environment, Sami Khilji said chemical waste management is imperative for economic development in the country. “The government is committed to its obligation regardingchemical waste handling,” he said. He said the Environment Ministry was already implementing number of programs started in line with the international Conventions and Protocols.
Director General Pak-EPA, Asif Shuja Khan said during last tenyears the chemicals imports increased by 400 per cent in terms of value. He said side by side industrial growth in the country, there is also need for laying down effective chemical waste management mechanism.
He supported the idea of data collection to ascertain the magnitude of chemicals under use and raise awareness among masses to avoid health hazards.
Shuja said effective management of chemical waste cannot be possible without technology transfer to the developing countries by the developed nations.
He said all segments need to join hands to prepare contingency plans for chemical waste management and preparing national level inventories on chemicals usage. Jonathan Krueger, Program Officer Chemicals and Waste Management Programs, United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) called for developing national level governance in the area of chemical waste management.
“Chemical waste management should be part of the national strategies and priorities,” Jonathan said. He also stressed to develop national programs and assured cooperation by the UNITAR and the Swiss Government. Zaheer Gillani elaborated aims and objectives of the workshopand presented an overview of the chemicals usage and their harmful impact on human health.