“The pollution on this planet has never been worse. The impact of our people has never been more deadly. But the time to fix it has never been better,” said Mr Ibrahim Thiaw, Deputy Executive Director, UN Environment in Geneva, Switzerland, on 24 April.

He was speaking at the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions (BRS Triple-COPs) in Geneva, where around 1600 participants from 180 countries, including Tonga, are meeting between 24 April – 5 May to discuss managing chemicals and hazardous waste with the aim to detoxify the planet.

Under the Rotterdam Convention, eight substances to the Annex III ‘watchlist’ will be considered of which two, paraquat and chrysotile asbestos, are particularly relevant to Tonga, Cook Islands, Republic of Marshall Islands and Samoa who are parties to the convention.

Ms Lupe Matoto, Director of Environment and Ms Mafile’o Masi, Chief Environmentalist for MEIDECC are representing Tonga at the meeting. Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Environment, Hon Siaosi Sovaleni and MEIDECC CEO Mr Paula Ma’u will attend the high level segment starting on 4 May.

Ms Matoto believes that the Pacific island countries must take their representation at Multilateral Environment Agreements very seriously.

“Tonga is a Party to the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions. It’s very useful for us to be here and explore the synergies between the different Conventions and ensure that we are able to meet our obligations.”

Other issues to be discussed at the conference include the prevention and minimization of generating waste under the Basel Convention, and listing chemicals for ‘elimination’ and ‘eventual elimination’ under the Stockholm Convention.

In the Pacific region, the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Program (SPREP) acts as the coordinating centre for the Basel and Waigani Conventions, providing assistance and capacity development in the areas of chemical management and toxic waste.

SPREP’s Hazardous Waste Management Adviser, Dr Frank Griffin says it is very important for Pacific Island countries to attend these meetings.

“The BRS Triple COPs provide Pacific island representatives with the opportunity to see what other countries are doing, how they can learn from all these and improve their own operations at the national level.”

He added that Pacific representatives also have the opportunity to participate and inform the rest of the world what they are doing at the national level.

Asbestos in Tonga

Asbestos was a key building material used to build government buildings including schools and hospitals in Tonga in the 60s and 70s.

Earlier this year, works started to remove asbestos from government buildings and hospitals such as Vaiola Hospital on Tongatapu and Prince Ngu Hospital in Vava’u and according to MEIDECC's environment department, this work is still ongoing.

The asbestos is most likely to be buried at the Tapuhia landfill tip in Tongatapu and the Kalaka tip in Vava’u.

This is not the first time asbestos has been removed from old buildings in Tonga. In the past, the asbestos roof of the old Vaiola Hospital was removed and buried in the middle of the former rubbish dump at Patangata, Tongatapu.