The participants of the workshop included Focal Points and Contact Points of the Stockholm Convention, as well as national stakeholders, representatives from the private sector, international experts and members from regional UN offices.
18 country representatives participated in the regional training workshop on POPs wastes and PCBs, which took place from 2 to 5 February 2009 in Kingston, Jamaica.
The workshop was opened by the Honorable Minister in the office of the Prime Minister’s Office, Mr. Daryl Vaz.
Mr. Chris Corbin (second from left) from the UNEP Caribbean Regional Coordinating Unit in Kingston is delivering opening remarks on behalf of his organization.
Mr. John Vijgen (standing at the right), the expert on POPs pesticides, discusses with the participants possibilities to implement Environmentally Sound Management of obsolete POPs pesticides in the Caribbean.
The field trip included a visit to the Jamaica Public Services (JPS) Electrical Utility site in Kingston, where transformers are stored in an environmentally sound manner.
The participants also discussed action plans and possible ways forward to speed up the implementation of the Stockholm Convention at the national level.
The regional training workshop for the English-speaking Caribbean countries that are Parties to the Stockholm Convention took place at the Courtleigh Hotel in Kingston, Jamaica.
Another station of the field trip was a lake containing caustic mud from a bauxite plant. Acid will be used to neutralize the mud.
The participants were discussing ways to manage the lake including diverting rainfall to avoid flooding of the lake.
A container serving as a temporary storage for various obsolete pesticides. Some of the stored pesticides had started leaking and need to be repackaged and disposed of.
Workshop participants heading towards JPS's PCB Storage Facility
Workshop participants being addressed by Mrs. Claudia Davis, Head of Materials
Management, Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS)
A JPS employee demonstrates the use of the Chlo-N-Oil Test Kit for screening the
concentration of PCB in Transformer Oil
JPS employee affixes non-PCB label to a screened Transformer