Bangladesh now free of hazardous pesticide DDT: Env minister

Environment, Forest and Climate Change Minister Md Shahab Uddin on Sunday officially declared that the country is now free of the hazardous insecticide DDT. 

He made this announcement at a press conference organised by the ministry, marking the successful removal of 500 tonnes of DDT from the medical sub-depot of Chattogram, and the achievement of the World Biodiversity Conference, reads a press release.

The minister said the Department of Health had imported 500 tonnes of DDT pesticide in 1985 to implement the malaria control programme.

The imported and unused dangerous organic chemical pesticide DDT, considered of low quality, was kept in stock at the medical sub-depot of the Health Department at Agrabad in Chattogram, he said.

In view of the aforementioned situation, the Ministry of Forests and Climate Change undertook a project titled "Pesticide Risk Reduction in Bangladesh" with the funding of the Global Environment Facility and technical support from the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations, Shahab Uddin said. 

Despite various obstacles, it was possible to completely export the toxic substance to France on 10 December 2022, the minister said. 

Shahab Uddin thanked all concerned and said that public health and environmental protection have been made possible as a result of this removal. 

An international commitment of Bangladesh has been fulfilled with the export of DDT, a product banned by the Stockholm Convention, the minister added.

At the media event, the minister highlighted the achievements of the World Biodiversity Conference held in Montreal, Canada from 7-19 December 2022. 

Shahab Uddin said, in the speech given on behalf of Bangladesh in the high-level segment of the conference, he called on the developed world to increase the significant amount of support for the implementation of the Global Biodiversity Framework after 2020 and to spend at least 1% of the world's GDP on biodiversity conservation. 

The minister said the vision of "Living Harmony with Nature" by 2050 and the "Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework" was adopted at the Biodiversity Conference with the aim of preventing and protecting biodiversity and ecosystem damage by 2030. 

The framework has set 23 targets under four objectives. Under this framework, the country's "National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan" will be updated. 

One of these goals is to conserve 30% of the world's terrestrial and aquatic environments and to secure at least $200 billion in funding per year from all sources by 2030 for biodiversity conservation.

Several other documents titled Sustainable Wildlife Management, Nature and Culture, Coastal and Marine Biodiversity, Biodiversity and Agriculture, Biodiversity and Climate Change, Invasive Alien Species, and Synthetic Biology were accepted in the conference, the minister said, adding that the next action plan will be determined by meeting with all the ministries/departments, offices/organisations concerned with the said documents.

Shahab Uddin said Bangladesh has convened the conference in solidarity with other countries to come forward with the goal of ensuring that the developed world receives adequate financial, technical and technological assistance. 

In that context, it has been decided at the World Biodiversity Conference that the Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) fund will be established in 2023 by the Global Environment Facility, he said.

The minister said Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has already pledged to provide $350 million in financial assistance to developing countries for the implementation of GBF and the conservation of biodiversity.

Deputy Minister Habibun Nahar, Secretary Dr Farhina Ahmed, Additional Secretary Mizanul Hoque Chowdhury, Additional Secretary Sanjay Kumar Bhowmik, Director General of the Department of Environment Dr Abdul Hamid and representatives of United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organisation were present at the event.