On 24 July 2015, representatives from 13 Pacific island countries joined staff from the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) and United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) to attend the second Project Steering Committee Meeting of the Pacific POPs Release Reduction Project in Suva, Fiji.
The project, funded through the Global Environment Facility - Pacific Alliance for Sustainability (GEF - PAS), aims to reduce persistent organic Pollutants (POPs) in the Pacific region through the improved management of solid and hazardous waste.
POPs are toxic chemicals that can travel long distances through air and water, and accumulate in the fatty tissues of humans and other animals. They do not degrade quickly over time – and so can potentially expose people to serious health issues including cancer, birth defects and immune system impairments. Many POPs have uses in pest and disease control, crop production and industrial processes and are produced intentionally for specific purposes. Other POPs are produced as unintentional by-products of human activities, such as through the burning of waste materials and in the manufacture of chemicals.
Speaking at the opening of the meeting Mr Kevin Helps, GEF Portfolio Manager for UNEP, explained that the meeting was an opportunity for SPREP and UNEP - as executing and implementing agencies of the project, respectively - to hear from the countries present about what is working well with the project and what areas require further attention.
Also speaking at the meeting was Dr Johann Poinapen, Acting Director of the Institute of Applied Science at the University of the South Pacific. Starting this month, Dr Poinapen and his team will be developing new resource materials to support training in the use, management and regulation of hazardous chemicals.
Other highlights included an overview of used oil management initiatives in the region and a brief on developments relating to the pesticide container management by the FAO.
Ms Lusiana Ralogaivau, SPREP's GEF uPOPs Project Coordinator, noted that the issue of POPs has taken on a noticeably higher profile in the region since the project commenced in 2013:
"We are very pleased to have been able to integrate the reduction of POPs into other strategies and mechanisms managed by the Waste Management and Pollution Control Division of SPREP. For example POPs have been addressed at the recent Waigani Convention Training and also in the new draft Pacific Regional Waste and Pollution Management Strategy 2016-2025 known as Cleaner Pacific 2025."
The Pacific POPs Release Reduction project is co-funded through the Global Environment Facility - Pacific Alliance for Sustainability (GEF-PAS) and Agence Française de Développement (AFD). It is executed by SPREP, in close cooperation with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
The Project Steering Committee is composed of representatives from the 14 Pacific Islands Countries (Cook Islands, FSM, PNG, Marshall Islands, Samoa, Tuvalu, Palau, Tonga, Kiribati, Nauru, Niue, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Fiji), and SPREP, the United Nations Environment Programme, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), and Fletcher Steel Pacific (now BlueScope Pacific Steel), Pacific Power Association and Fiji National University.