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Extracts of the speech delivered by the Minister of Environment and National Development Unit, Mr Rajesh Bhagwan at the opening ceremony workshop on the Enabling Activities For the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs).

The workshop was organized in early April 2004 at La Canelle, Domaine Les Pailles.

“… Article 7 of the [Stockholm] Convention requires that state parties should develop National Implementation Plans. Consequently, one of the main objectives of this workshop and training sessions will be precisely to pave the way for the setting up of our National Implementation Plan along the prescribed guidelines.”

“… Long distance travelers such as dioxins and DDT can be released in one area, then hitchhike within air masses to regions far from their original source. Through a process known as the “grasshopper effect,” persistent chemicals jump around, evaporating in warm conditions and then settling in cool spots. This is why contamination from POPs knows no geographical boundaries.”

“ The hundreds of toxic hotspots and cases of contamination which have been identified all around the world demonstrate the global threat of POPs. And we have only begun to scratch the surface in understanding the threats from exposure to POPs…”

“… The word POPs has a nice ring to the ear but, as we have seen, it refers to one of the most dangerous groups of chemical substances released into the environment by human, industrial and agricultural activities. They are invisible killers circling the globe, leaving a path of disease, death, and birth defects in their wake.”

“… The implementation of the Stockholm Convention is therefore an urgency we cannot ignore if we want our children and grandchildren to be proud of the heritage which they will receive from us.”