REGIONAL CENTRE WORKSHOP OF HAZARDOUS WASTES OPENED BY EL SALVADOR ENVIRONMENT MINISTER

Press Release
ENV/DEV/550
UNEP/75

REGIONAL CENTRE WORKSHOP OF HAZARDOUS WASTES OPENED BY EL SALVADOR ENVIRONMENT MINISTER

GENEVA/NAIROBI, 10 August -- The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) secretariat of the Basel Convention, at the invitation of the Minister of Environment in El Salvador, is organizing the second workshop on strengthening the operation of the Basel Convention Regional Centres for Training and Technology Transfer worldwide. The workshop will be held from 10 to 11 August 2000 in San Salvador, El Salvador. It will be opened by Ana Maria Majano, Minister of Environment of El Salvador, on 10 August.

Representatives from all regional centres will participate in the workshop. There are 13 such centres located in the following regions: Africa (Egypt, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa); Asia and the Pacific (China, India, Indonesia); Central and Eastern Europe (Russian Federation, Slovak Republic); and Latin America and the Caribbean (Argentina, El Salvador, Trinidad and Tobago, Uruguay).

The fifth meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP-5) which met in December 1999 highlighted the need to put more emphasis on regions through regional centres. The El Salvador workshop will focus on how to strengthen organizational and operational aspects of the centres. Since their inception, the regional centres have been strongly enhancing the legal, technical and institutional capabilities in regions to manage hazardous wastes in an environmentally sound way.

"The Basel Convention Regional Centres for Training and Technology Transfer will play a key role in implementing the Convention", said Per Bakken, Officer-in- Charge of the secretariat.

The Basel Convention was signed in 1989 and entered into force in 1992. It has 136 parties (as of August 2000). The Convention is concerned with the annual worldwide production of hundreds of millions of tonnes of hazardous wastes. These wastes are considered hazardous to people or the environment if they are toxic, poisonous, explosive, corrosive, flammable, eco-toxic, or infectious.

The Convention regulates the movement of these wastes and obliges its members to ensure that such wastes are managed and disposed of in an environmentally sound manner. Governments are expected to minimize the quantities that are transported, to treat and dispose of wastes as close as possible to the location where they were generated, and to minimize the generation of hazardous waste at source.

- 2 - Press Release ENV/DEV/550 UNEP/75 10 August 2000

Note to journalists: For more information, please contact Anne-Maria Fenner on (+41-22) 917 8227; fax: (+41-22) 797 3454; e-mail: . Official documents and other information on the Basel Convention are available on the Internet at . In Nairobi, please contact Tore J. Brevik, UNEP spokesman, tel: 254-2-623292, fax: 623927; e-mail: .

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