Nigeria to Eliminate Equipment with High Toxic Contents by 2025 - Minister

 

Polychlorinated Biphenyl are a class of organic compounds found to be fire-resistant, stable and non-conductive to electricity and with low volatility under normal conditions.

Equipment containing PCBs include transformers, capacitors, ballasts, paint additives and hydraulic fluid additives.

Mailafia gave the indication at the inauguration and first meeting of the Inter-ministerial Steering Committee for the Polychlorinated Biphenyl management project in Nigeria.

Represented by Dr Uju Okoye, the Deputy Director in the Office of the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Environment, the minister recalled that the production of Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) had been banned globally since the 1980s due to their toxicity.

According to her, Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) is the largest consumer of dielectric fluids and owns a large number of equipment that potentially contains PCBs.

The minister listed private electrical generators, major industrial facilities, oil refineries, textile mills and cement industries as other possible significant users of equipment that potentially contain PCBs

She said that the project would also support the implementation of the national plan submitted to the Stockholm Convention in 2009.

She said that the ministry, in collaboration with the World Bank, had established a Project Monitoring Unit and concluded the appointment of qualified personnel to the various positions in the PMU.

``The positions are the project Coordinator, Procurement Specialist, Environmental Specialist, Monitoring and Evaluation officer, Project Accountant and Internal Auditor.’’

She said the development objective of the project was to strengthen the national capacity for the management of POPs and PCBs required under the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants.

The minister urged members of the committee to exhibit a high sense of responsibility as well as efficiency to achieve the goal of environmental quality, by preventing releases of PCBs through sound management and ultimate safe disposal.

Reports say that the Inter-ministerial Steering Committee was drawn from the Ministries of Information, Environment, Labour and Productivity, Health, Power, Finance and the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS).

You will recall that Nigeria is a signatory to the signed the Stockholm Convention which requires all parties to eliminate the use of PCB containing equipment by 2025.

They are to make determined efforts to have equipment contaminated with PCBs subjected to environmentally sound waste management as soon as possible, but not later than 2025.