The Green Page - March 28, 2001

Publication: Daily Nation
Paper Page:15A
Paper Date: Wed, Mar 28, 2001
Byline: Compiled by Terry Ally

Page sponsored by The Tourism Development Corporation 

  
 

 

Region's eco project launched

A $17-million project to alleviate environmental stress in Barbados and other CARIFORUM countries has been launched. At stake is the protection of regional natural resources ­ to ensure that the proverbial goose that lays the golden egg is not killed.

Manager of the three-year Caribbean Regional Environmental Programme (CREP), Cathal Healy-Singh, said the eco-systems which support Caribbean economies are under severe and increasing stress and the challenge is how to alleviate that stress while steering national economies towards deriving more sustainable and productive economic benefits from its resources. The programme plans to do this in four main ways which are: implementing physical projects to protect biodiversity and protected areas in selected CARIFORUM states; launching a massive public awareness blitz throughout all CARIFORUM countries; creating a regional information network to sustain the work; and, improving the capacity of national organisations to continue the work.

"CREP is not about generating more, or adding to the, mountains of literature about what to do to solve problems, it is about doing and solving of problems," he said.

Based at the Caribbean Conservation Association (CCA), CREP is to be staffed by a programme administrator, technical officer, an information officer, and clerical and accounting staff under the programme manager.

Healy-Singh said that this core group will conceptualised and prioritised projects among the 16-member CARIFORUM, with the exception of Haiti and the Dominican Republic, and contracts will be executed through short-term consultants as well as through existing national environmental organisations in each of the targeted countries.

The project is funded by the European Union (9.1 million Euros) and managed by a joint executive committee comprising the Secretary General of CARIFORUM, the Minister of Finance of Barbados, CCA, the Caribbean Natural Resources Institute, the Caribbean Environmental Health Institute, the Delegation of the European Commission, Belize, Dominica, and Guyana.

CARIFORUM comprises Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Montserrat, St. Kitts/Nevis, St. Lucia, Suriname, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago.

 

Eastmond for Montreal meeting

Minister of the Environment Rawle Eastmond attends the Montreal ministerial meeting March 29 to 30 which will afford western countries a chance to share ideas in planning co-operative action to meet the most pressing environmental challenges. The meeting of Environment Ministers of the Americas is being convened by the Government of Canada as a precursor to the Third Summit of the Americas, slated for Quebec from April 20 to 22.

The aim is to have sustainable development issues factored into the Summit of the Americas agenda. With the emphasis on health and well-being, the discussions will focus on the main themes of:

(Barbados Government Information Service)

Garbage can a must

Believe it or not but a 1975 law in Barbados demands that every building must have a garbage can. It is the Health Services (Collection and Disposal of Refuse) Regulations, Section of which states: "The owner or occupier of every dwelling house and the owner or person in charge of every building shall -

  1. in respect of each such house or building provide for the storage of
    refuse one or more receptacles suitably covered, of reasonable weight, of a capacity:
    1.  in the case of a dwelling house not exceeding 4 cubic feet (about 25 gallons)
    2. in the case of every other building, not exceeding 54 cubic feet (about 336 gallons)

The law also stated that where a sanitation service is not provided, the garbage is to be disposed at least once every seven days, in an approved manner. The penalty, on summary conviction, is a fine not exceeding $5,000 or imprisonment for a term not exceeding 12 months or both and in the case of a continuing offence to a further fine of $200 for each day or part thereof during which the offence continues after a conviction is first obtained.

Imagine that if this law were to be enforced the treasury would become significantly richer overnight. If one assumed that only one-quarter of the 78 000 properties in Barbados did not have garbage cans, that could reap over $97 million in maximum fines. Assuming that those same households decided to purchase a garbage can, instead, at an average cost of $25 each, the total bill for these people would be $487 500.

 

Study: Most Americans have toxins in blood

The results of the first national study of environmental toxins show that most Americans have traces of them in their blood, according to a report by the Environmental News Network (ENN).

The study found levels of 27 toxic metals, pesticides, and plastics in the blood and urine in a general sample of 5 000 men, women, and children. Prior to the study, scientists had only been able to measure the levels of many of these chemicals in air, water and food.

"This report should serve as a wake-up call," said John Balbus, director of the Center for Risk Science and Public Health. "It is the first time the government has made an inquiry into the level of contaminants in human bodies, and the public has the right to know this."

In a related story , veteran journalist Bill Mayers, 66, had blood tests done at New York's Mount Sinai School of Medicine to find out whether any man-made chemicals were in his body. Tests done for 150 chemicals turned up 84. Dr. Michael McCally, who is conducting a study of man-made chemicals in the human body, said that Mayers' blood turned up 31 different kinds of PCBs, 13 different dioxins, the pesticide DDT, and lead. His story was told in a PBS documentary Trade Secrets on the chemical industry, Monday night.