VientianeTimes-Dec 22
The Mekong River Commission (MRC) has sounded the alarm on the growing challenge of pollution due to macroplastics and microplastics and urged its four member countries to create a joint mechanism to monitor and clean up pollutants that affect the ecosystem and human health. In its first report on “Riverine plastic pollution” in the Lower Mekong River Basin (LMB) that was unveiled recently, MRC recommended that Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Thailand pass and enforce new rules and regulations on waste littering, the so-called “3Rs” of reduce, reuse, recycle, and riverine plastic waste management. According to the MRC, these policies should specify who should do what, and identify the “clear responsibility of national government, local government, private sector and community”.
The MRC said: “The risks of plastics pollution are growing more urgent. The MRC’s own Riverine Plastic Monitoring (RPM) Program – the first one in the world – estimated that in 2020, its four countries had produced about eight million tons of plastic waste. At ports and piers, for example, some 70 percent to 90 percent of the solid waste was identified as plastic bottles, plastic bags and Styrofoam. ”The CEO of the MRC Secretariat, Dr Anoulak Kittikhoun, said, “As our region is undergoing rapid economic development and urbanization, plastic has found a wide variety of applications due to its relatively low cost, light weight, durability, ubiquity, and malleability.” According to the MRC, experts now view plastic pollution as a major hindrance to the “sustainable ocean economy”, which is relied on by some three billion people around the world. The issue of plastic pollution first became prominent in 2017, when landmark research by a German-led team documented how large rivers were the main source of many hundreds of tons of plastics that had begun to suffocate parts of different oceans. The researchers identified the rivers most responsible around the world, and the Mekong ranked 10th. Read more at: https://www.vientianetimes.org.la/freeContent/FreeConten2022_New248.php
