Hazardous waste is a major global environmental challenge and poses serious risks to human health and safety, and other species of the ecosystem. It has exacerbated over the years as countries pursue industrial and agricultural development without caring for the adverse consequences on the people and the planet. The problem stems from the fact that countries producing an excess of hazardous waste export it to minimise their burden, whereas developing countries like Pakistan are lured to import these hazardous wastes to benefit from them, particularly in terms of chemical recovery and generating revenues. However, it has generated more health hazards for the people of Pakistan and its physical environment because of the limited capacity of the country to handle waste.
The Basel Convention, which came into force in 1992, aims at mitigating the movement of hazardous wastes across nations.
Global efforts resulted in various multilateral environmental agreements, which are known as the Basel, Rotterdam, Stockholm and Minamata Conventions and are aimed at protecting human health and the physical environment from hazardous chemicals and wastes. The Basel Convention, which came into force in 1992, aims at mitigating the movement of hazardous wastes across nations. The Rotterdam Convention deals with the prior informed consent procedure for certain hazardous chemicals and pesticides in international trade. The Stockholm Convention is concerned with the management of persistent organic pollutants that remain active in the environment for an extended period of time. Finally, there is the Minamata Convention on Mercury that addresses specific human activities contributing to widespread mercury pollution.
Pakistan is a party to all these conventions and is actively engaged with various regional and global efforts currently underway to effectively manage the problems of hazardous waste. Clause 4 of Article 4 of the Basel Convention binds every signatory party to take appropriate legal, administrative, and other measures to implement and enforce the provisions of the Convention. The 18th Constitutional Amendment, introduced in 2010, empowers the provincial governments to make laws on the subject of ‘environmental pollution and ecology.’ However, there is no mechanism after the implementation of the 18th amendment under which the Federation and federating units can coordinate and comply with the conditions and requirements of multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs) on the management of Hazardous Waste (HW). It is against this backdrop that the Ministry of Climate Change (MoCC) has formulated a National Hazardous Waste Management Policy (NHWMP) with the objective of bringing all stakeholders at the federal and provincial levels to work together in the implementation of international conventions on Hazardous Waste Management.
The formulation of “National Hazardous Waste Management Policy, 2022” aims at ensuring the country’s compliance with the requirements of MEAs concerning hazardous waste. Before the formulation of this policy, issues related to HW were addressed under the PEPA, 1997. The change in the jurisdiction of regulation and management of HW waste in 2010 in the wake of the introduction of the 18th Constitutional Amendment Act created a situation which retards the progress of the implementation of the international conventions. Absence of a coordination mechanism between the federation and provinces further complicated the situation, and no integrated approach was developed for the management of hazardous waste. It appears that provinces were playing second fiddle to the issue of management of HW. A strong initiative was required for addressing this policy issue, which has both national and international ramifications.
Compelled by this situation, the Ministry of Climate Change (MoCC) took the initiative and formulated the NHWMP by bringing all stakeholders on board to contribute to the implementation of the MEAs on Hazardous Waste Management. It provides the much-needed opportunity for the federal government and its provincial counterparts to come forward and seriously consider the enormity of the task of managing HW by taking the steps required under the international conventions to mitigate the effects of HW in Pakistan.
While the formulation of NWHM policy is a step forward, it also has some shortcomings which can be addressed to make it more feasible, viable and acceptable to all stakeholders in the society. It has acknowledged the problem of HW which exists, laid down the framework for implementation through various regulations and committees and discussed the ways and means to find a sustainable solution to the problem of management of HW in Pakistan.
Some of the shortcomings include the absence of a clear-cut mechanism to record inventories of chemicals in the country. Secondly, the policy should have provided clear guidelines for the source reduction of hazardous waste. It is also important to consider the issue of HW streams generated by various industries. Industry diversity makes it even more difficult for all sectors to take initiatives for recycling, independent of the support of the government. Finally, most HW generator facilities have no special storage areas or any segregation system. To make things worse, HW is mixed and disposed of with municipal and other waste. This oped series will critically explore NHWMP 2022 from two perspectives, i.e. John Kingdon’s Policy Streams Model and William Richard Scott’s Trichotomy Analysis/Implementation
(To be concluded).
Alizar Sajjad is law student at University of London. Saud Bin Ahsen works at public policy think tank.