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 …
negotiators from the us and 28 other countries are nearing agreement on a treaty to restrict the production and use of toxic chemicals. But reports that Russia still produces and uses polychlorinated biphenyls (pcbs), the poisonous chemical that has been banned years ago in the us and other countries, came …
The ministry of environment and forests has barred entry to ships that carry hazardous wastes, like polychlorinated biphenyl, which are banned under the Basel Convention. The decision has been taken in order to check the threat posed to the marine ecosystem by ship-breaking yards at Alang. Complying with the order, …
a recent study conducted in Delhi has found alarming levels of metals such as lead and cadmium in several placental tissues. This has sharply highlighted the hazards of air pollution as these metals are both toxic and often, are the cause many irreversible health effects. The threat unborn babies face …
a simple filter based on sand and iron filings could effectively prevent millions of people being poisoned by arsenic in the water they drink. Nikalaos Nikolaidis, professor of environmental engineering as the University of Connecticut, usa , has created a filter that converts almost all the water-borne arsenic into insoluble …
containers full of toxic substances "exported' to India are lying unclaimed in several inland container depots, reports a high-powered panel looking into the issue of hazardous wastes. The ministry for environment and forests ( mef ) had formed the panel after a Supreme Court's order when environmentalists warned that the …
industrialised countries and some developing countries who stood to benefit from trade in recyclable hazardous wastes, attempted to sabotage the Basel Convention and remove restrictions from this trade at the fourth Conference of Parties (cop-iv) which was held in Kuching, Malaysia. But the move failed to materialise in the face …
The Basel Convention on Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal came into being in May 1992. Initially, it had been ratified by just 20 countries. India ratified the convention the same year, but has yet to ratify the Basel Ban. Movement of hazardous wastes had become …
From the way the Indian delegation went about its business at COP-IV, it was apparent that they had come to Kuching with a mandate to protect India's economic interests. What was missing, however, was a perspective as far as the environment was concerned. For one, India wanted to discuss the …
The fourth Conference of Parties(COP-IV) to the Basel Convention saw a new NGO representation. The Basel Action Network (BAN) took keen interest in the proceedings. Greenpeace International, dominant in the earlier three COPs, was there too, in full strength. Consisting of
While the fourth Conference of Parties to the Basel Convention managed to keep the threat of amendments to Annex VII at bay, it showed a weak point in the convention which may be attacked again by vested interests. Annex VII had been created at the third Conference of Parties in …
soft pvc toys for infants release unacceptable quantities of hazardous substances, says a Scientific Committee of the European Union (eu) in Brussels. The Committee states that exposure of babies to the three softeners added to pvc toys - the phthalates dinp , dehp and dnop - can be hazardous. Doses …
baleshwar, 24, will never walk again. While scrapping a ship at one of the 183 shipbreaking yards at Alang in district Bhavnagar, Gujarat, he fell from a height of 10 metres, suffering multiple fractures in his legs. His one-year tenure at the shipbreaking yard has also left Baleshwar with respiratory …
The geography of Alang makes it ideal for shipbreaking. The beach is low and tides are as high as 10 metres. During low tide, the sea recedes by three km. The industry was set up in Alang in 1982, egged by the demand for a safe haven for shipbreaking. By …
The living conditions in labourers' settlements are indeed sub-human, admits a government official, asking not to be named. High pollution levels, lack of clean drinking water and cramped living conditions in Alang have badly affec-ted the health of labourers. There is no provision for potable water. "We have to buy …
a few days before the United Front (uf) common programme was to be released, the Union minister for environment and forests, Saifuddin Soz, in an interview told Down to Earth that the uf has a separate section on the environment. However, the common programme and the joint policy declaration of …
recent reports that Planning Commission member G Thimmiah has recommended free import of zinc ash are disturbing. The Planning Commission is a political advisory body, whose task is to formulate plans for self-reliance, poverty eradication, employment generation and the like. It lacks constitutional or statutory status. However, since the prime …
"we are becoming the waste destination of the world," said a senior Indian custom official at a high-level meeting held recently on the issue of hazardous waste imports by India. The comment highlighted the helplessness of those who are meant to protect India from waste imports from its porous 7,500-km …
The bulk of pesticides used in India are organochlorines which have an immense capacity to persist in the environment and accumulate within living bodies. Pesticides like dichlorodiphenyl trichloroethane (DDT), hexa-chloro cyclohexane (HCH), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and hexachlorobenzene (HCB) enter the body through intake of grains, vegetables, fruits, edible oils, dairy …
