By Lekereni Chinkhota

Salima, August 2, Mana: Ministry of Natural Resources and Climate Change Tuesday expressed concern at the pace which the country was executing National Implementation Plans (NIPs) for mitigating Persistent Organic Pollutants due to inadequate resources.

The development was revealed in Salima during an inception meeting held to review and update the National Implementation Plans (NIPs) of the Stockholm Convention on the Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) in Malawi.

Deputy Director of Environmental Affairs Department, Victoria Kachimera said the main challenge the country was facing over time in implementing the NIPs that were developed in 2004 and 2019 has been low or inadequate financial resources allocated to implementation activities.

She added that by not implementing activities underlined in the NIPs it has made it difficult for government to determine if the actions outlined in the NIP are effective or not in mitigating POPs, as the chemicals could cause serious human health and environmental problems.

"Malawi developed two NIPs which allowed us to come up with plans on how we will manage a group of chemicals which are called POPs. These chemicals are particularly dangerous because they stay in the environment for a very long time and they are difficult to get rid of.

"Another challenge is the complexity of the chemicals themselves. While the country may not have the capacity to analyse or detect the chemicals in products, there are opportunities for ou institutions of higher learning to conduct research in the said areas," Kachimera added.

She pointed out that the involvement of different stakeholders during the inception meeting would assist in reviewing and updating the 2019 NIP with assistance from United Nations Environmental Programmes and Africa Institute.

The Deputy Director said after sourcing views from different stakeholders from the workshop, a platform for strategic objectives, capacity building, and mobilising resources for management of POP chemicals has been put forward to benefit the country in eliminating the problem.

Assistant Programme Coordinator for the Africa Institute, Vincentius Mughongora said the adoption of NIP's idea by Malawi government was a good idea to mitigate the usage of POPs.

"It is important to strengthen the political will regarding the adoption of the NIPs. The Africa Institute helps in facilitating the funding that countries receive to ease their objectives that are developed by the countries to mitigate the availability of POPs," he said.

The workshop which involved stakeholders from agriculture, forestry, higher education institutions and universities, media and district councils among others aimed at collecting ideas that can be used to implement the launched NIP and how best it can run for the benefit of the country.

Some of the chemicals covered under the Stockholm Convention include chlordane that is used in construction for termite control, as well as Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs) that are found in transformers and capacitors.