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Give committees definite jobs to do
2008-03-20 08:45:32
By Editor
Health and Social Welfare minister David Mwakyusa on Tuesday officiated at the launch in Dar es Salaam of what is flatteringly called Chemical Emergency Response Committee.
The programme for the ceremony in Dar es Salaam included an elaborate address by the minister on the causes and consequences of the rampant spread of hazardous chemicals and the efforts the government and its relevant agencies were doing to stem the tide.
Prof Mwakyusa did not actually attend the function but had the ministry’s permanent secretary, Wilson Mkama, standing in for him.
Much of the flamboyant talk at the launch was excellent music and highly readable – but mostly only in that it combined into an oldie so sweet to both the ear and the eye that playing it over and over again after it had been sidelined for years gave it a semblance of newfound credence.
Nostalgia aside, though, there was little to the event to match the seriousness and gravity of the problems resulting from the mishandled production, distribution, sale, consumption and disposal of chemicals in such plentiful supply in our country.
Anyone who followed the minister’s remarks attentively enough must have been left wondering: If the situation is this gloomy, why do we still prefer talking to taking concrete preventive or remedial action to save our generation and posterity from worse future danger caused by poor handling of chemicals?
It was categorically stated at Tuesday`s function that mining was the sector most to blame for saturating the country with toxic waste – more generally referred to as harmful chemical substances.
One would have expected to hear the government outlining workable measures it was planning to take in support of efforts by institutions like the National Environmental Management Council (NEMC) founded specifically to help make our environment cleaner and safer.
Strangely, all we heard was a vague warning that control mechanisms would be tightened towards that end.
Serious problems call for equally serious solutions. The list of the dangers toxic waste poses is near-infinite and some are either lethal or lead to debilitating illness.
The Dar es Salaam launch, much like numerous previous similar occasions, named a few although not all that elaborately.
Prof Mwakyusa himself admitted that some chemicals used in the extraction of minerals have a direct impact on miners and long-term negative effect on the populace.
The intimidating list of the chemicals in question includes names like sodium cyanide, mercury, polyacrylamide, ammonium nitrate and versatic acid.
A national committee to monitor the environmental and general impact of the importation and use of GMOs was launched, also in Dar es Salaam, as recently as hardly a month ago.
This one is a wing of the Environment Department of the Vice President`s Office.
If one could ask, is this plethora of committees really an absolute necessity? Couldn’t some streamlining get us even better and faster results?
We see an anomaly here that we believe the government could – and should – address urgently. And that should have been done years ago.
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