Bamyan – This week the joint UN Environment Programme and National Environmental Protection Agency (NEPA) team on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) conducted a pilot POPs Inventory Exercise in Bamyan Province with 20 governmental and academic partners.
What are POPs?
Persistent Organic Pollutants, or POPs, are industrial chemicals and pesticides that are resistant to degradation and have significant impacts on the environment and human health. POPs can be particularly harmful as they bio-accumulate in food chains. In Afghanistan, UNEP and the National Environmental Protection Agency (NEPA) are working together, with the support of the Global Environment Facility (GEF) to eliminate and restrict the production of POPs. Afghanistan acceded to the Stockholm Convention on POPs in 2013 and has been working since then to reduce their impact in the country. Afghanistan’s National Implementation Plan (NIP) for the Stockholm Convention includes the promotion of best available environmental practices and techniques, as well as plans for the replacement of existing POPs in the country.
The Inventory Exercise
The main objective of the Inventory Exercise exercise was to bring together the POPs Technical Working Group to identify data on releases of POPs into the environment. During the meeting, the group reviewed the list of potential sources of POPs and identified those expected to occur in Afghanistan, together with sources on data to quantify them. The group made site visits to a power station, a gypsum burning factory and surveyed the fuel uses of bakeries. The meeting concluded with a visit to the Band-e-Amir Protected area.
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