From BLESSING OKEZIE, Lagos
Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), and the National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency (NESREA) have resolved to strengthen collaboration towards more effective regulation of electronic waste management in the Country.
The resolution was made during a courtesy visit of the Management of NESREA to the SON recently.
The NERSEA team was led by the Director General, Dr. Aliu Jauro.
Jauro, acknowledged the existing collaboration between the two organisations since NESREA came into existence, especially in the areas of standards development, adoption and review which has contributed immensely to his agency’s regulatory efforts in environmental standards.
He however expressed concern about the negative effects of Electronic Waste (e-waste) in Nigeria following the influx of obsolete and near end of life electronics into the country, thus requiring closer attention.
The NESREA Chief Executive referred to the two agencies’ active participation in an inter-ministerial consultative committee set up by the federal government in 2009 to strategise on curbing the influx of electronic waste and near end of life electrical/electronic equipment and products which safe disposal poses serious challenge to the Nation in view of the hazardous materials contained in them.
Jauro also expressed concern about activities of recyclers of Electronic waste materials across the country saying their activities which are often carried out in unsound environmental manner, exerts negative impact on the environment and human health.
The NESREA boss, therefore sought SON’s support for effective regulation of e-waste and mitigate the negative effects in Nigeria by making the lists of all Electrical/Electronic Equipment (EEE) and products certified under the Mandatory Conformity Assessment Programme (MANCAP) for locally manufactured products and those imported under the offshore conformity assessment programmes (SONCAP) available to NESREA.
He said this will provide NESREA with the inventory of importers of Electrical Electronic Equipment (EEE) to enable the agency follow-up and ensure that the goods are appropriately recycled at the end of the life cycle and disposed of properly and in environmentally sound manner.
Responding, the SON DG,Mallam Farouk Salim, identified e-waste as a threat to health and the environment when not handled properly.
He lamented the general ignorance of the dangers by the larger population while the recyclers prioritise their financial gains over public good and operate freely due to lack of consequences for their negative activities
According to the SON Chief Executive, Nigeria, has become a dumping ground for so many toxic materials thus exposing the citizens to diseases like cancer without knowing the source.
He therefore acceded to a joint Committee to workout appropriate measures to integrate areas of common interests between the two organisations in order to curb the consequences of the prevalence of e-waste in Nigeria.
Salim, posited that the proposed committee should consider strengthening existing standards, work towards engendering far reaching regulations of e-waste and its effects on the environment as well as greater consequences for people responsible for the menace through the legislature
The two agencies, agreed to harmonise their roles on a take back system in line with the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) programme; and also for SON to provide necessary inputs to the sanitation & waste control and the EEE sector regulations which are currently under review by a technical committee.
Mallam Salim, promised NESREA the needed support in its continued effort to regulate e-waste and near-end of life EEE in the country as well as designing an environmentally sound management programme on e-waste
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