UNIDO launches contaminated sites management toolkits for Africa in Ghana

The United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO), on Tuesday launched a comprehensive toolkit on Contaminated Sites Managements on Persistent Organic Pollution (POP) to aid developing countries with the detection, cataloging and prioritisation of contaminated sites.

The toolkit seeks to assist countries with the development of suitable technologies for land remediation – that is the clean-up of chemical and pollutants on land sites that causes health concerns to humans and the environment in accordance with best available techniques and best environmental practices.

In a speech read on his behalf to launch toolkit in Accra, Mr Daniel Amlalo, Acting Executive Director of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), said the toolkits would be used as a training tool ,self-directed manual, resources document for decision makers and range of other stakeholders.

He said the kits were being piloted in Ghana and Nigeria but would eventually be used throughout Africa and other developing countries in other parts of the world.

Mr Amlalo said lessons learned and experiences gained would be useful in the systematic identification of POP contaminated lands, risk assessment and application of appropriate remediation technologies.

He noted that increasing presence of toxic chemical substances and waste in production and consumption processes had raised public concern in both developing and developed countries.

Mr John A. Pwamang, EPA Director in Charge of Chemicals Control and Management, said Ghana had no nationally derived standards for land contamination assessment, stressing that sometimes the country adopted standards from the developed countries which had different conditions.

He said the toolkits would therefore assist practitioners and policy makers in developmental strategies to ensure full compliance to the Stockholm Convention on POP, which was legally binding multilateral environmental agreement intended to protect human health and environment.

Dr Luqman Adeoti, UNIDO Regional Expert in an overview ,said the toolkits contained step-by-step approach, easy-to-use worksheets and checklists, integration of risk assessment with contaminated site management, screening matrix for selection of remediation technologies, cost-benefit analysis and case studies.

GNA