The Government of Sweden is allocating 4.5 million EUR for a project aimed at minimizing human health impact and protecting the environment from hazardous chemicals – persistent organic pollutants - that remain intact in the environment for a long period.

A five-year project “Environmentally Sound Management of Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) in industrial and hazardous waste sectors”, to be implemented by UNDP of Bosnia and Herzegovina, will focus on the prevention of unintentional POPs releases in the environment, while shifting from POPs toward non-POPs chemicals in the plastic industry.

The Stockholm Convention, an international environmental treaty, which deals with the POPs, was ratified by BiH in 2010. However, there are still gaps related to regulation, implementation and inconsistencies among different levels of government in BiH that should be addressed.

 “I am so pleased that we will support this project working on prevention of the release of toxic chemicals in the environment. We all must do our best to protect the environment! This project will improve medical waste management, implementation of green chemistry initiatives in industry and agriculture along with destruction of identified POPs waste stockpiles. The project also envisions destruction of at least 50 tons of existing POP’ waste” said Marie Bergström, Head of Swedish Development Cooperation.

Exposure to POPs can lead to serious health effects including some cancers, birth defects, dysfunctional immune and reproductive systems, greater susceptibility to disease and damages to the central and peripheral nervous systems[1]. Women are particularly sensitive to hazardous chemicals, during some periods of their life,  like pregnancy, breastfeeding and menopause.

Proper introduction and implementation of the Stockholm convention in the country demands collaboration between relevant institutions covering different sectors and different levels of government.

To achieve this and reduce quantities of hazardous substances in the environment “UNDP will cooperate closely with the public, private and civic sector, and conduct outreach campaigns targeting citizens, especially vulnerable groups, to increase their understanding how POPs are hampering human health” underlined Sukhrob Khoshmukhamedov, UNDP Deputy Resident Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The project will build on lessons learned from related projects implemented in the European Union countries as well as by bi-lateral knowledge exchanges and exploration of technology transfer with Swedish Chemicals Agency, KEMI and other Sida and UNDP projects in the region.

To ensure gender equality and women's empowerment while gender-based differences are recognized, the project will incorporate certain mechanisms.

[1] Source: http://chm.pops.int/TheConvention/Overview/tabid/3351/Default.aspx

Key Facts:

• The Stockholm Convention was adopted on 22 May 2001, and entered into force on 17 May 2004, after 50 countries had ratified it.
• The main objective of the Stockholm Convention is to take measures for the elimination or restriction or prevention of the production, import, export and use of all manufactured POPs (pesticides and industry chemicals) and the continuous reduction to minimize the occurrence of these pollutants in the environment, and the elimination of emissions of unintentionally produced POPs (such as dioxins, furans, as well as hexachlorobenzene and PCBs that occur in industrial processes).
• Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are organic chemical substances carbon-based, which possess a combination of physical and chemical properties that, once released into the environment, remain intact many years, become widely distributed, accumulate in the fatty tissue of living organisms and are toxic to both humans and wildlife.