SEVERAL ACTIVITIES UNDERWAY TO PROMOTE THE AWARENESS OF PERSISTENT ORGANIC POLLUTANTS (POPS)

Basseterre, St. Kitts, November 11, 2021 (SKNBS): The Basel Convention Regional Centre for Training and Technology Transfer for the Caribbean (BCRB-Caribbean), in collaboration with SEN Consulting is conducting several activities as part of the communications and awareness component of the ongoing 5-year regional project GEF 5558 – Development and Implementation of a Sustainable Management Mechanism for Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) in the Caribbean.  

POPs are man-made, toxic chemicals that are harmful to human and animal health and the environment. They travel extremely long distances and dispersed widely via  by air, water and soil and can be passed through the food chain. They can be found in pesticides such as DDT, and chemicals used in certain manufacturing and industrial processes. POPs can also be released into the atmosphere through combustion, that is, burning of medical waste and plastics, or even burning of household trash.

The awareness programme kicked off with a series of radio show appearances on November 2, 4 and 5, 2021.

A video panel discussion will be aired on Wednesday, November 17 on ZIZ TV (St. Kitts) and NTV (Nevis).

There will be a poetry and spoken word competition for primary and secondary school students on December 4, 2021. The poems must speak about Persistent Organic Pollutants. The deadline for submission is November 29, 2021.

Mr. Noah Mills, communications consultant, has stated that the competition is a “fantastic partnership between the BCRC Caribbean, the St. Kitts and Nevis Bureau of Standards, TDC, SEN Consulting and the Ministry of Education and the various primary and secondary schools both private and public across St. Kitts and Nevis.”

The communications consultant stated that the competition is not just an information sharing effort, but it also invites students to do research, translate that research into knowledge, and then share that information with the public through a poetry and spoken word.

“In that way we will be able to achieve the overall goal of stopping the POPs by identifying, learning, and acting,” he said.