Tyrone Reid, Staff Reporter
St. Catherine High School drummers perform at yesterday's official opening ceremony for the five-day Sub-Regional workshop on Synergies on Chemicals Convention for the English-speaking Caribbean at the Hilton Kingston Hotel. - JUNIOR DOWIE/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
MINISTER OF Health John Junor has warned against the dangers of pesticides in the Caribbean claiming that their continued use will eventually cause serious harm to the environment.
"It is something that we at the ministry are very, very, concerned about and we in the Caribbean must be alert too, given the delicate ecosystems of our small islands and the impact and potential impact of these agricultural practices on things like our reef systems ...," he said.
Mr. Junor was speaking at the opening ceremony of the five-day sub-regional workshop on the implementation of chemical conventions for English-speaking Caribbean countries at the Hilton Hotel, New Kingston.
He said the threat posed by pesticides becomes much more terrifying because of the importance of tourism to Caribbean countries.
TREMENDOUS IMPACT
"The impact for this region of proper environmental practices is so tremendous that we cannot afford to ignore what you do here today," he said.
He also offered a possible solution. "Integrated action is what is necessary to ensure that we do in fact protect this delicate balance that we have inherited in our world," he said.
The workshop, which is promoting synergy on chemical conventions, is being convened by the United Nations Environmental Programme Chemicals in tandem with the Pesticides Control Authority of the Ministry of Health and is sponsored by the Government of Switzerland.
It has attracted representatives from seven other Caribbean Community (CARICOM) territories including Trinidad and Tobago, St. Lucia, Guyana and Antigua.
Hyacinth Chin Sue, registrar at the Pesticides Control Authority (PCA), who chaired the opening ceremony, said that the intent of the workshop is to show how to take ideas from the planning and strategising phase and making them reality.
MAJOR DIFFICULTIES
Ms. Chin Sue confessed that the lack of implementation, because of a dearth in resources, has been one of the major difficulties faced by developing countries after signing these international conventions on chemicals.
Gabriela Löw, who represented the Swiss Government, expressed confidence in the success of the five-day workshop. This, she said, was based on the results from a previous Swiss-funded programme staged here.
Fatoumata K. Ouane, a representative from UNEP Chemicals, revealed that the 500 million tonnes of chemicals produced worldwide each year are good servants but potentially dangerous masters. "We need to control them (chemicals) but not be controlled by them," she urged.
