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PS: Govt committed to 2020 goal on safe use of chemicals
2008-02-12 09:56:31
By Correspondent Nasser Kigwangallah
The government is committed to the 2020 goal of safe use of chemicals, to the benefit of the health of all Tanzanians and of their environment.
The remarks were made in Dar es Salaam on Friday by Sophia Kaduma, the Deputy Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture, Food Security and Cooperatives.
She was closing a three-day National Forum on Sound Management of Chemicals and Waste organised by the Chief Government Chemist Laboratory Agency.
The forum was under the umbrella of the Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (SAICM).
She said she was greatly impressed to witness such a wide participation from different invited stakeholders and actively participating in the forum.
``We realise even more that chemicals and waste management is a matter of shared concern. Indeed, everybody is involved, all of us as consumers, but we are here also as professionals and workers,`` she said.
She added: Our tasks are big, and much is demanded of our commitments, our skills and our creativity.``
Kaduma said there was no easy solution to the problem, ``and resources will always be limited and still all aim at actions that have a real impact in the daily life of millions of Tanzanians, farmers, miners, small shop owners, workers in plantations and industry, etc.``
According to her there was a need to strike the balance between beneficial use and safety of chemicals.
She commended the conference organisers for their commitment and future engagement, based on their work and on the declaration they had adopted.
She directed the organisers to involve many stakeholders with different interests, responsibilities, and aims whilst developing complicated concepts such as mainstreaming and its translation into the realities of policy implementation.
``You should come up with understanding and speak a common language, share expectations, develop common goals and engage in concrete ways of working together,`` she said.
She told the participants that their participation and commitment can be considered as one of the low hanging fruits, and that there was no one recipe on how to go about a process like SAICM, without learning-by-doing.
She said sharing their experiences with the other pilot countries might be interesting.
``I am glad that the issue of available national resources has clearly been put on the table.
Key knowledge is available within Tanzania, and if properly exploited and shared, will be the backbone of all progress,`` Kaduma said.
She reminded participants of their obligation by saying that there have been a few guiding phrases in her life, one of them is from Mwalimu Nyerere: ``Don`t ask so much what your country can do for you, but rather ask what you can do for your country.``
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