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CARICOM protests plan to ship hazardous waste through region
A plan by the United Kingdom and Japan to ship hazardous waste via the Caribbean Sea is not going down well with regional officials.
The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) has issued a statement calling for an immediate halt to the transit of radioactive material.
According to Chairman of CARICOM, Dr. Denzil Douglas, who is also the Prime Minister of St. Kitts and Nevis, the practice is “unacceptable and injurious.”
Douglas asserted that it has become intolerable to the governments and people of the Caribbean, as the shipments compromise the rich but fragile ecosystem, and put at risk “the very existence of the people of the region.”
The call to halt the transit of the waste through the Caribbean Sea has come in the wake of an announcement that a new shipment of Vitrified High Level Waste would leave the United Kingdom this week for Japan, through the Caribbean.
Dr. Douglas said that CARICOM remains steadfast in its opposition to the passage of shipments of such material through the Caribbean Sea, which is recognised by the United Nations as a Special Area in the context of Sustainable Development.
The full text of the statement reads as follows:
“It has been brought to the attention of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) that a new shipment of Vitrified High Level Waste will, this week, leave the United Kingdom for Japan transiting the Caribbean Sea.
CARICOM remains immutable in its opposition to the passage of shipments of radioactive material through the Caribbean Sea, the rich but fragile ecosystem which is recognised by the United Nations as a Special Area in the context of Sustainable Development.
Denzil Douglas
The environmental, socio-economic and cultural identity of CARICOM is dependent on the integrity of the Sea from which the Region takes its name. CARICOM vehemently condemns as unacceptable and injurious, the practice by the United Kingdom, France and Japan of transporting hazardous waste through the Caribbean Sea, thus risking the very existence of the People of the Caribbean. This ongoing practice is intolerable to the People and Governments of CARICOM.
The Community urges all those involved in making these shipments, to halt them immediately.”
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