Basel Ban Amendment

• Vaid's ICS, Lucknow
• 27, Sep 2021

Why in news?

The 1995 Basel Ban Amendment, a global waste dumping prohibition, has become an international law after Croatia ratified it on September 6, 2019.

Basel Convention:

• The Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal was adopted on 22 March 1989 by the Conference of Plenipotentiaries in Basel, Switzerland.
• It does not address the movement of radioactive waste.
• To implement and restrict the trade of hazardous waste between more developed countries and less developed countries an organization is formed which is known as Basel Action Network (BAN).
• The provisions of the Convention center around the following principal aims:
• The reduction of hazardous waste generation and the promotion of environmentally sound management of hazardous wastes, wherever the place of disposal.
• The restriction of transboundary movements of hazardous wastes except where it is perceived to be in accordance with the principles of environmentally sound management.

Which countries yet to sign/ratify?

• Countries like the US, Canada, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, Russia, India,Brazil, and Mexico are yet to ratify the ban.
• The US produces the most waste per-capita but has failed to ratify the Basel Convention and has actively opposed the Ban Amendment.
• Nearly, 40 percent of e-waste delivered to US recyclers is exported to Asian and African countries.

Basel Action Network (BAN):

• Founded in 1997, the Basel Action Network is a charitable organization of the United States, based in Seattle.
• BAN is the world’s only organization focused on confronting the global environmental justice and economic inefficiency of toxic trade and its devastating impacts.
• BAN serves as the information clearinghouse on the subject of waste trade for journalists, academics, and the general public.

Facts for Prelims:

International Hydropower Association (IHA).

• NHPC’s 510 MW Teesta-V Power Station located in the Himalayan State of Sikkim has been conferred with the prestigious Blue Planet Prize by International Hydropower Association (IHA).
  • The power station has been built, owned and operated by NHPC.

Teesta-V Power Station

• The power station has been built, owned and operated by NHPC.
• The award has been conferred for its sustainability assessment undertaken by the Hydropower Sustainability Assessment Protocol (HSAP) of IHA.