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Paper No. (4)
The Hazardous waste shipment: Israeli toxic waste
enters the Jordanian territories
The topic of the first Discussion Meeting of the "Hot
Environmental Issues Forum" was the shipments of hazardous
waste that entered Jordan during the months of August/September
2000 from Israel under the pretense of it being material
to be used locally in the manufacturing of paint, only
to be identified by a Specialized Committee as manufactured
material that had expired. It was classified as "scrap"
and was declared unfit for use in any manufacturing
process, in fact the whole shipment was confiscated
and was treated as very dangerous and harmful to anyone
attempting to utilize it.
Following this incident, this paper was prepared in
order to attempt to identify the nature of this material,
its quantity, the procedures being taken to deal with
it, the health and environmental impact due to the presence
of such materials in the country, or in case they are
actually utilized, and the legal course of action to
be taken to handle such cases. However, dealing with
toxic waste is an issue that causes extreme dissatisfaction
to the injured party, and this case in particular took
on a political dimension as soon as it was exposed.
Analysts and concerned parties speculated that it was
Israel's intention to get rid of their toxic materials
by marketing them, via agents, in Jordan, or that such
attempts are a cover up for an operation aimed at smuggling
these materials and burying them in Jordanian grounds.
Based on this, the Forum for Hot Environmental issues
called for a discussion meeting regarding these toxic
materials, inviting a number of specialists to participate.
Following the Meeting several recommendations were made,
the most important of which are:
Forbid the entry of any chemicals to Jordan, unless a
Certificate of Origin, Technical Documents, and the Licenses
necessary to import such chemicals accompanies them, which
are issued by the relevant Government Organizations.
The necessity to include important information about these
Chemicals on the Custom's Documents including the scientific
name of the chemicals, the Brand (Commercial) Name, the
CAS number and the expiry date.
The necessity to establish a comprehensive system to manage
toxic waste in Jordan.
Forbid the entry of Chemical Materials via the Border
Entrypoints that are within cities before these materials
are inspected and certified as safe.
The necessity to abide by the International Agreements
that governs the transport of toxic chemicals and waste,
and punishes violators.
Ensure transparency on behalf of the Government and decision-makers
when exposing environmental issues, in order to prevent
the spreading of false rumors and exaggerations.
The necessity to conduct Training Courses for Employees
at the Borderpoints in order to increase their knowledge
of and capability to use sophisticated programs that access
a Database that is linked to the Customs' Centers. This
will facilitate the work of Customs' employees to monitor
and identify materials that are imported through these
points.
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