| “Some capital cities smell like a sewer and look like a garbage heap when you go to them,” said Executive Director of the Caribbean Environmental Health Institute (CEHI), Ms Patricia Aquing, when she addressed the opening session of a biomedical waste management training workshop yesterday at the Grand Coastal Inn, Le Ressouvenir, East Coast Demerara.She amplified the fact that many countries have over the years been engaged in waste management, but face the same emerging problems year after year.Aimed at deriving a regional policy, the Japan Cooperative Institute- funded workshop, which was spearheaded by CEHI, in collaboration with the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) and the Japanese Government,Cheap Adidas Superstar Shoes, will be characteristic of intense discussions among participants.The initiative, which is fully supported by the Ministry of Health, saw the attendance of Health Minister Dr Leslie Ramsammy, who noted that the training workshop is in fact a step in the right direction and even dubbed it “a dream come through.” However, he cautioned that the work is not over, and there is yet more to be done when it comes to waste management.“While it is true that we have put it on the public health agenda,Air Max 97, it largely remains on the agenda of something that we have talked about, but our actions have not always been consistent with our rhetoric…The efforts here today, and the leading role that CEHI has played in the Caribbean, have to match our deeds to our rhetoric.”And it is the Minister’s belief that there has been some progress in reducing the gap between deeds and rhetoric, firmly placing the issue of waste management on the agenda although investments may not yet be consistent with the place where biomedical management should be. As such he noted much more must be done collectively.In addition to local health officials, the workshop also saw the attendance of officials from the Solid Waste Management Department of the Georgetown municipality. Aside from Guyana, representatives from 13 territories were in attendance including: Belize, British Virgin Islands, Barbados, St Vincent, Grenada, St Kitts and Nevis, St Vincent and the Grenadines, St Lucia, Dominica, Montserrat, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and Antigua and Barbuda.The workshop, which will culminate tomorrow, had its genesis some 10 years ago during a conversation with Minister of Health Dr Leslie Ramsammy had with CEHI officials shortly after he assumed the ministerial capacity. According to Aquing, Minister Ramsammy had at that time urged that CEHI do some works in biomedical waste management in the Region.Moreover, CEHI started focusing attention in terms of assisting countries by offering training in biomedical waste management through continuous workshops.However, the need for a policy and a planning process is crucial, since Aquing emphasized, without this much cannot be accomplished,Cheap Jerseys 2018, or if accomplished, will be done in a most ad hoc manner. And this could only lend to the lost of precious resources, she added. As such, the participants at the workshop were strategically selected from the health sector and the area of waste management.Aquing noted that biomedical waste has been receiving increased attention within countries and has been causing alarm, especially with regards to the disposal of waste from facilities that are treating HIV/AIDS patients.“If you were to place the issue of HIV/AIDS and biomedical waste in the context of waste management many of you would see it as a significant issue in the Region.”And the issue of waste management cannot be separated from other areas such as the weather and other environmental issues. This notion, Aquing said,Cheap Jerseys, became evidently clear when the Caricom Secretariat, CEHI’s parent company, requested the preparation of a paper for the attention of Heads of Government about the current drought situation being experienced in the Caribbean.The intent, she said, was for CEHI to develop some proposed long, medium and short term measures to address the situation.“When we talked about the interconnectivity of how we conduct ourselves in our countries, it came home to me most significantly why we cannot separate the issue of waste management from other areas.”Aquing revealed that one of the suggestions made to the heads about the water resources issue, was the use of secondary water resources such as rivers and other water sources that were not being tapped into as a regular supply of water, given the drought situation.However, Aquing disclosed that many of these alternative resources could not have been accessed as they were polluted by waste.“People are throwing their fridges and stoves and domestic waste into the rivers; washing their cars and bathing in the river…you know, we in the Caribbean,Wholesale China Jerseys, like to do these things; it is part of our culture. So these resources could not be tapped and, if they are tapped, significant investment would be required to treat the water to make it potable enough to be used by households and communities.”And it was against this background, Aquing said, that the relevant officials must seek to make the link within the minds of people that the behaviour they indulge in will come back to haunt them. And the situation has already started to “bite us” the Executive Director said, citing as an example the fact that the impact of El Nino.And the situation is critical to the extent that it will be deliberated on at the next heads of Government meeting come July, according to Aquing. She amplified her belief that “unless we can look at developing our policies and plans, and effecting same,Adidas Nmd r1 Women, we are going to continue to be in the same mess that we are in right now.”The initiative is being regarded by the Caricom Secretariat as one that can provide public goods at a regional level, according to Dr Rudolph Cummings. He speculated that there will be some measure of efficiency and effectiveness in having regional mechanisms to deal with some types of biomedical waste.It was on a similar note that PAHO/WHO Environmental Health Advisor, Adrianns Vlujman, emphasised that the safe and efficient disposal of health care waste has become an increasing issue in Caricom member states thus PAHO has accepted the mandate to lend assistance where ever possible.He warned though that the initiative engaged should not remain a one-way exercise but rather there should be a continued exchange of knowledge among countries. |
