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Government has adopted and signed the Minamata Convention on Mercury, which is expected to ban the manufacture, import or export of mercury-added products.Environment, Water and Climate Minister Saviour Kasukuwere said the Minamata Convention on Mercury is an international treaty that was designed to protect human health and the environment from anthropogenic emissions and releases of mercury and mercury compounds.
The treaty, which was adopted by an international conference organised by the United Nations Environment Programme is expected to take effect in 2016 at the earliest.
Cde Kasukuwere said the treaty calls for a ban by 2018, on the use of mercury products.
“We are going to be taking measures to reduce the manufacture, import or export of mercury or mercury-added products until we eliminate the substance totally.”
According to the document, by 2020, mercury products such as fluorescent lamps, thermometers, thermostats and barometers, among other products that contain a certain level of mercury would be phased out.
“Mercury is not degradable thus it can be dangerous to human and our environment,” he said.
Minamata is a small factory town dominated by a company called Chisso Corporation.
Cde Kasukuwere explained the origins of the Minamata Convention.
“The town faces the Shiranui Sea, and Minamata Bay is part of this sea. In Japanese, ‘chisso’ means nitrogen and the Chisso Corporation was once a fertiliser company, and gradually advanced to a petro-chemical and plastic-maker company.
“From 1932 to 1968, Chisso Corporation, a company dumped an estimated 27 tons of mercury compounds into Minamata Bay and after dumping this massive amount of mercury into the bay, thousands of people, whose diet included fish from the bay, unexpectedly developed symptoms of methyl mercury poisoning,” said Cde Kasukuwere.
He said the illness became known as the Minamata disease caused by mercury poisoning resulting from years of environmental destruction.
“What we saw in Minamata was saddening and Government will ensure the safety of citizens and the maintenance of our natural resources.”
Cde Kasukuwere also said the cyanide poachers’ in the Hwange National Park and all those who posses the dangerous chemical have up to the end of this month to surrender the poison or face arrest.
“It is unfortunate that we have been faced by another disaster at the national park were more carcasses, some of them still fresh, were found. We are calling for stiffer penalties for offenders,” he said.
Online Reporter