Bangladesh is free from the dangerous biochemical pesticide DDT: Environment Minister, Bangladesh
Md. Shahab Uddin, Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MOFECC), Bangladesh, officially declared Bangladesh free from DDT, a dangerous organic chemical pesticide.
He made this announcement at a press conference organized by his Ministry on the successful removal of 500 tons of DDT from the Chattogram medical sub-depot and the achievement of the World Biodiversity Conference on January 17, 2023.
The minister said that the Department of Health had imported 500 tons of DDT pesticide in 1985 to implement the malaria control program.
The unused hazardous organic chemical pesticide DDT has been imported from substandard stores at the medical sub-depot of the Health Department at Agrabad, Chattogram.
Because of the situation mentioned above, the MOFECC undertook a project titled ‘Pesticide Risk Reduction in Bangladesh’ with the funding of the Global Environment Facility and technical assistance from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
Due to the tireless work of the officials through the project, despite various obstacles, it was possible to export the toxic substance completely to France on December 10, 2022.
The minister thanked everyone concerned and said, “Public health and environment protection has become possible due to this export.
An international commitment of Bangladesh has been fulfilled with the export of DDT, a product prohibited by the Stockholm Convention.”
In the second part of the press conference, the minister highlighted the achievements of the UN Biodiversity Conference (COP 15) held in Montreal, Canada, on December 7-19, 2022.
In the speech given on behalf of Bangladesh in the high-level segment of the conference, the developed world calls upon it to increase the significant amount of support for implementing the Global Biodiversity Framework after 2020 and to spend at least 1 percent of the world’s GDP on biodiversity conservation.
He said that in this conference, the vision of ‘Living In Harmony With Nature ‘ by 2050 and the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework ‘ had been adopted to prevent and protect biodiversity and ecosystem damage by 2030. In that framework, 23 goals have been set under four objectives.
One of these goals is to conserve 30% of the world’s terrestrial and aquatic environments and to ensure that at least US$200 billion is financed annually from all sources by 2030 for biodiversity conservation.
Ensure financing of at least US$20 billion per year by 2025 and at least US$30 billion per year by 2030 from the developed world to the developing and underdeveloped world. Under that framework, the country’s ‘National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan’ will update.
The minister said that several other documents titled Sustainable Wildlife Management, Nature and Culture, Marine and Coastal Biodiversity, BIODIVERSITY AND AGRICULTURE, Biodiversity and Climate Change, Invasive Alien Species, Synthetic biology, etc.,
Had been accepted at the conference. The next action plan will determine by meeting with all the ministries and departments concerned with those documents.
-Translated by
