National Chemical Profile of Vanuatu 2021

Kotra, Krishna K. (2022) National Chemical Profile of Vanuatu 2021. [Professional and Technical Reports]

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Abstract

This consultancy report is part of the development of “Vanuatu’s National Chemicals Profile” which is one of the different components of the project “Strengthening the national institutional capacity for chemicals and waste management in Vanuatu”. The objective of the project is to support country-driven institutional strengthening at the national level, in the context of an integrated approach to address the financing of the efficient management of chemicals and wastes, taking into account the national development strategies, plans and priorities of Vanuatu, to increase sustainable public institutional capacity for the sound management of chemical and wastes throughout their life cycle. Institutional strengthening under the Special Programme will facilitate and enable the implementation of the Basel, Rotterdam, Stockholm and Minamata conventions and the Strategic Approach of International Chemicals Management (SAICM). Dr Krishna Kumar Kotra working at The University of the South Pacific had carried out this consultancy work for Department of Environmental Protection and Conservation (DEPC). In developing the National Chemical Profile of Vanuatu, stakeholder meetings, data collection, site visits etc. were done during August 2020 and March 2021. As expected, the data collection part was difficult due to lack of proper records and non-supply of data from some stakeholder’s in-spite of several requests. Thus, the current documentation was limited to all available data that is being supplied by various stakeholders and from Customs and Inland Revenue. The collected data shows that Vanuatu is an importer of chemicals but not a supplier. An average of 2,031 Million Vatu imports were done for chemicals and allied products for the years 2018-2020 with over 2,000 Million Vatu for each year. The mineral imports for the same period are 11,030, 9,987 and 6,475 Million Vatu. Most of the chemical imports are for general usage in various sectors of industries and for household purposes. Even though, Vanuatu being part of many conventions over the years, there seems lack of some components of these frameworks being not implemented to a full spirit. There are multiple reasons being brought forward which include political, administrative, human resources, expertise and financial constraints. The implementation of the safe management and disposal of chemicals in the country was found as a non-monitored programme. It was not noted that many storage sites do lack any emergency response equipment nor trained staff. There is very limited knowledge in regard to chemical storage, usage and discharge. These underlines an urgent need to frame proper legislation with administrative support for the monitoring program to track the life cycle of all chemical imports. The program should also include the protocols needed to follow for transport, storage and safe disposal. It is recommended that there is a need also for promotional activities for safe usage and storage of chemicals/chemical related products. To achieve this, the consultant recommends strengthening DEPC’s capacity by establishing “Chemicals Monitoring Officer”. In-spite of Customs and Inland Revenue Department do track the chemical imports as raw material or in bulk quantities, there are multiple anomalies being observed in the data entry. There is no other proper track of chemicals there onwards either in their usage/storage/disposal by various end users in the country. This clearly calls for an urgent need to develop appropriate legislations that enable proper record maintenance by stakeholders. Added, a National Chemical Management Database to track the flow of these in the country should also be established. Furthermore, proper legislation for transport, storage, usage and discharge should be established for the sound management of chemicals in the country. Alongside, trainings and workshops for staff of DEPC and stakeholders are also strongly recommended, as there are currently none being implemented in the country. The consultant believes that here is an urgent need to establish a National Chemical Testing Laboratory to regularly test various water/soil/air samples for chemical constituents for maintaining a sustainable environment in Vanuatu. These regular analyses would align to enable to further strengthen SDG 3, Good Health and Wellbeing and also SDG 6, Clean Water and Sanitation. It is hoped that by considering the recommendations and plan to implement the recommendations would strengthen and track in achieving Sustainable Development agenda for 2030 of Sound Management of Chemicals and Waste under SDG 12, Sustainable Consumption and Production.

Item Type:	Professional and Technical Reports
Uncontrolled Keywords:	National Chemical Profile, Vanuatu, Chemical Management
Subjects:	Q Science > Q Science (General) Q Science > Q Science (General) > Q1-295 General
Divisions:	School of Agriculture, Geography, Environment, Ocean and Natural Sciences (SAGEONS)
Depositing User:	Krishna Kotra
Date Deposited:	24 Jan 2022 21:46
Last Modified:	24 Jan 2022 21:46
URI:	http://repository.usp.ac.fj/id/eprint/13198

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