High-level government officials and experts have underlined the need of proper management of mercury, a toxic metal, and mercury waste. They said mercury in any form is poisonous and it is badly affecting the people’s health due to lack of proper management and disposal of the liquid metal.
Speaking at ‘Inception Workshop on Enabling Activities to conduct Minomata2r Initial Assessment in Nepal’, Secretary at Ministry of Forest and Environment Prakash Mathema underlined the need for protecting citizens from mercury.
Mathema said mercury is causing hazard to human health and environment. He informed the process has begun to document the status of mercury in the country. The Secretary opined that is imperative to manage such record to fulfill Nepal’s international commitment.
Government Ministry has also been working out to enact law and draw up plans to prepare a national archive of mercury within a year. The Ministry has already implemented Enabling Activities to conduct Minamata Convention: Initial Assessment to keep the record of mercury.
Bipin Rajbhandari, Minimata focal point for Nepal, presented a paper highlighting the current status of Minamata Convention in Nepal. He said mercury is being imported from third countries. “Nepal doesn’t have a factory for the extraction of mercury, it is imported from third countries,” said Bhandari. Similarly, Bhupendra Devekopta, NPC- MIA Project presented a paper on the sources and status of Mercury in Nepal.
A study released last year had shown that nearly 40 percent of women of reproductive age, including in Nepal, have elevated levels of mercury in their body. The report ‘Mercury in women of childbearing Age in 25 countries, released last year, had revealed that mercury has been found in high levels across the globe. In Nepal, where the study was conducted in two locations—gold plant workers in Kathmandu valley and fisher folk around Begnas Lake in Kaski—mercury contaminations was found to be between 0.36 ppm to 1.72 ppm.
