The IMF’s April 2025 Regional Economic Outlook for Sub-Saharan Africa presents a clear warning: regional growth is slowing, debt pressures are mounting, and donor assistance is declining. Yet the report outlines critical opportunities particularly in domestic revenue mobilization, structural reform, and private sector activation that can shape a more resilient …
the Bangladesh government has banned the decommissioned Norwegian cruise liner, S S Norway, from entering its shores after receiving information that it was carrying 1,250 tonnes of asbestos. The ban came after the Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association (bela) threatened legal action if the ship was allowed into Bangladesh's territorial waters. …
a new global agreement to protect people and the environment from hazardous chemicals was reached at an international conference in Dubai. Called the Strategic Approach to International Chemical Management (saicm), the voluntary agreement was reached with participation from governments, the chemicals industry, business, trade unions and a few other civil …
The French are truly living up to the methods of their hymned revolution by trying to force their lethal waste, Le Clemenceau , on India rather than treat the dead ship on their own territory. The French revolutionaries of 1789 perpetrated the Reign of Terror, amongst the most reckless massacres …
The Danish government, a European Union (eu) member, will take the European Commission (ec) to court for annulling a ban on a brominated flame-retardant
How hazardous is dismantling a decommissioned ship? It does have dangerous substances like asbestos, polychlorinated biphenyls (pcbs) and spent oil. Who should be allowed to engage in shipbreaking? What rules exist to ensure the safety of labour involved in dismantling ships and the environment? A brief recap is essential for …
Regardless of the amount of hazardous asbestos contained in Le Clemenceau, India imports thousands of tonnes of asbestos and asbestos products every year. Asbestos is imported to India in three categories: • Articles of asbestos cement; • Fabricated asbestos fibres; and • Friction material and articles thereof with a basis …
sunita dubey Arlington, usa us legislators and public interest groups are strongly opposing the proposed changes to a publicly available database on toxic chemical releases and other waste management activities by certain industrial and federal facilities. The database
By the time you read this, the decision would have been taken: to allow or not to allow the French warship Le Clemenceau into India, so that it can be dismantled with unknown quantities of toxic substances in its structure. The decision could be to send the ship back for …
The cement industry is India's ultimate sunshine industry. Up until the 1980s, it was not growing phenomenally. Now it is. After cement was decontrolled in 1989, the industry took off
IT'S BEEN four months since the Union ministry of environment and forest (MoEF), on behalf of the Supreme Court Monitoring Committee (SCMC) on Hazardous Wastes, sent a strongly worded letter to the chief secretaries of all states and Union territories in India. Referring to the Supreme Court (SC) order dated …
The Supreme Court Monitoring Committee (SCMC) recently reversed its stand on the fugitive Danish ship that is allegedly carrying hazardous waste and has been docked in Gujarat's Alang port. In a new recommendation to state authorities, it not only permits beaching of the ship, but also its dismantling under the …
the export of hazardous plastic waste to India has lately created an uproar in some European countries, but Indian authorities are alarmingly unconcerned. Though the import of hazardous waste is not illegal in the country, according to an October 2003 decision of the Supreme Court, it requires the prior permission …
India's construction sector contributes about six per cent to her Gross Domestic Product. In the Tenth Five-year Plan currently unfolding, that figure is likely to go up. The plan envisages massive construction activity across the country. Over 60 per cent of the total plan outlay is likely to be spent …
the problems associated with electronic waste (e-waste) disposal in the country have come to the fore with the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (kspcb) issuing a show cause notice to information technology major Wipro Infotech for illegal disposal of such waste. But the onus is also shared by kspcb, because …
City authorities in Durban, South Africa, have discovered up to 4,000 times higher concentration of the chemical hexavalent chromium, or Chrome 6, in groundwater near a factory owned by Lanxess, an offshoot of German multinational company Bayer. Chrome 6 is a carcinogen that enters the body by inhalation, ingestion or …
cattle feed manufactured in Punjab under various brand names contain harmful quantities of limestone powder (lsp) and urea, the Punjab Dairy Development Department (pddd) warned recently. This adversely affects the quality of milk produced, as well as the health of the cattle. In its report based on tests of cattle …
the Supreme Court Monitoring Committee (scmc) on hazardous waste has recommended that a Danish ship reportedly carrying hazardous waste and beached at the Alang ship-breaking yard in Gujarat "be mercilessly driven out of India'. The ship's very arrival at Alang violated the Supreme Court's (sc's ) ship breaking directives, it …
While Pentagon begins another round of operations to close military bases, a recent survey by a prominent media organisation shows that pollution cleanup at over 100 USdefence department facilities by the US Environment Protection Agency (EPA) is incomplete. As many as 34 bases closed since 1988 are on EPA's Superfund …
Burn the waste: The Supreme Court (SC) on May 9, 2005, again ordered the SC monitoring committee (SCMC) on hazardous waste to immediately incinerate the hazardous waste oil lying at Nhava Sheva port in Mumbai for the last five years. "For the present, the cost of incineration would be borne …
The issue of safe ship breaking practices has come to the fore with the un ban on single hulled oil tankers coming into force from April 12, 2005. These tankers have a single steel layer separating their cargo from the sea and pollute more if the ship is damaged compared …
