MARINE DEBRIS
NEWS
Back-to-back workshops on Mercury Mass Flow and Monitoring in Maldives
On the 20th to 22nd of June 2023, AIT RRC.AP supported in organizing the back-to-back workshops on mercury mass flow and monitoring on mercury in Male, Maldives. This is part of the Japan-funded project implemented by United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) titled “Project for promoting the Minamata Convention on Mercury by Making the most of Japan’s knowledge and experiences.” The first workshop was a full day session held on 20th June with participants from government institutions, titled “Workshop for improving knowledge management within national stakeholders and frontline agencies, using mercury mass flow model”. The second workshop was held on 21st June with participants from different regional hospitals around the Maldives for half a day, titled “Training of sample collectors as part of the nationwide mercury biomonitoring program to identify the significance of mercury exposure within Maldives”.
The program concluded with a site visit to Thilafushi, a national landfill on a separate island near Male, to gain insight about the current state of waste management in the Maldives. The site is managed by Waste Management Corporate Limited (WAMCO) who presented on their current operations. They noted that their operation commenced in 2016 and have been collecting 800 to 1,200 tons of waste per day of which 10% are plastic waste. They also noted plans to expand operations and gave a brief tour of their facilities.
On the 20th to 22nd of June 2023, AIT RRC.AP supported in organizing the back-to-back workshops on mercury mass flow and monitoring on mercury in Male, Maldives. This is part of the Japan-funded project implemented by United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) titled “Project for promoting the Minamata Convention on Mercury by Making the most of Japan’s knowledge and experiences.” The first workshop was a full day session held on 20th June with participants from government institutions, titled “Workshop for improving knowledge management within national stakeholders and frontline agencies, using mercury mass flow model”. The second workshop was held on 21st June with participants from different regional hospitals around the Maldives for half a day, titled “Training of sample collectors as part of the nationwide mercury biomonitoring program to identify the significance of mercury exposure within Maldives”.
The program concluded with a site visit to Thilafushi, a national landfill on a separate island near Male, to gain insight about the current state of waste management in the Maldives. The site is managed by Waste Management Corporate Limited (WAMCO) who presented on their current operations. They noted that their operation commenced in 2016 and have been collecting 800 to 1,200 tons of waste per day of which 10% are plastic waste. They also noted plans to expand operations and gave a brief tour of their facilities.
The kNOwWaste Knowledge Platform was developed through a Project Cooperation Agreement funding by UNEP on 2016. The platform provides data and information on holistic waste management to stakeholders in Asia and the Pacific region. The platform was developed with the following aims: generate and consolidate data or information on holistic waste management, transform data into easily comprehensible outputs for use by key stakeholders, map out and disseminate information on international waste management projects under the GPWM and UNEP projects as well as other international partners, and provide capacity building support through dissemination of data or information support for relevant stakeholders on holistic waste and waste management system.
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