It is indeed a great pleasure for me to participate in this 5th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP-5) to the Basel Convention. On behalf of the Government of India and on my own behalf, I extend my heartiest greetings to you all and, in particular, the Government of Switzerland for hosting and making excellent arrangements for this momentous meeting which also marks the completion of ten fruitful years of existence of this Convention.

I would like to congratulate you, Mr. President on your election. We are confident that under your dynamic leadership, the Basel Convention will make significant progress in controlling trans-boundary movements of hazardous wastes and their disposal. I would also like to record our appreciation for the significant achievements made during your tenure, Madam President Ms Rosmani.

COP-IV was indeed a milestone in the annals of the Convention in which 25 decisions were adopted. The Conference adopted two new Annexe to the text of the Convention, i.e., Annexe VIII and IX These annexures respectively contained the lists of wastes which are banned for trans-boundary movements and wastes which are not subject to the ban and can be safely recycled/reused as raw material. I am happy to inform you that in India we are in a very advanced stage of adopting these lists by amending our domestic legislation on hazardous wastes management.

Following the mandates given to it by the COP, the Technical Working Group (TWG) has done useful work to remove ambiguity in the list of wastes. This work, however, requires to be given greater attention to further clarify certain entries of wastes. Taking into account, the review mechanism that has been agreed to in the TWG, I am of the opinion that the lists should be accepted and implemented so that we could proceed with the more important work of capacity building for environmentally sound management, technology transfer and elimination of illegal traffic of hazardous wastes. Simultaneously, we should also concentrate on looking at specific problems regarding characterisation of the already listed wastes.

In 1995, the parties adopted decision IV/1 that would ban trans-boundary movement of hazardous wastes destined either for final disposal or recycling and recovery operations from Annexe-VII States to non Annexe-VII States. The ban amendment does not explicitly take into account the ability of member states to process wastes in an environmentally sound manner. Till date, there is no consensus on the criteria to be adopted to judge if a particular process or technology for disposal or recycling could be categorised as environmentally sound. As such, the implicit premise in the ban amendment that all Annexe-VII states are capable of environmentally sound management of hazardous wastes needs to be reviewed.

The advantages of recycling vis-a-vis simple disposal both in environmental and economic terms need no reiteration. As far as recyclable metallic wastes are concerned, it is well recognised that recycling is far more energy efficient as compared to the primary route. For modernisation or technology upgradation of recycling units, it is necessary to ensure a certain minimum scale of operations which is often not possible through wastes generated inside the country alone. The ban amendment which imposes a blanket ban on movement of recyclable wastes to non-Annexe-VII countries, may come in the way of technology upgradation of recycling industry in non-Annexe-VII countries. This would not be conducive to environmentally sound management of wastes which is the primary objective of this Convention.

Therefore, we would like to urge that the ban amendment be reviewed early. As a first step, we suggest that the Technical Working Group should take up the task of preparing draft guidance documents on environmentally sound management of wastes that are used for recycling or re-processing.

I am happy to inform that in India, we plan to formulate a systematic action plan that would focus on building and maintaining capacity within the country for hazardous wastes management. I take this opportunity to thank CIDA for the proposed financial support to set up a sub-regional centre at New Delhi, for training and technology transfer on management of hazardous wastes and hazardous substances.

On the development of the Protocol on Liability and Compensation, I would like to reiterate our commitment for a strong Protocol that would encourage countries to be more vigilant in the trans-boundary movement of wastes. In this regard, we greatly appreciate the work done by the Legal Working Group. Considering its importance and the broad consensus reached so far, I am hopeful that we would be able to sort out the outstanding issues and adopt the Protocol 'in this COP.

We welcome the enunciation of the Basel Declaration that we would be backed by a decision to ensure incorporation of various areas of work in the relevant work plan of the subsidiary bodies of the Convention. We feel that for better understanding, more details will have to be worked out in the areas identified in the draft Basel Declaration. In addition, development of projects and financial strategies for setting up of treatment facilities in developing countries are also required to be pursued.

In regard to the monitoring mechanism to ensure compliance of the Convention, I wish to stress that this is important for the success of the Convention. We would suggest that a body be identified early to administer the mechanism.

Mr. President, let me take this opportunity to submit some information regarding certain important steps we have initiated in India in the field of hazardous waste management. Some of these steps are:

• Amendment to the domestic legislation on waste management in harmony with decisions adopted in the Convention.
• Setting up of Hazardous Wastes Treatment, Storage and Disposal Facility with private sector partnership.
• Training and education programme for customs and port authorities for monitoring the movement of hazardous wastes.
• A legislation for collection and disposal of old/used lead-acid batteries, in an environmentally sound manner.
• Banning of imports of hazardous wastes containing toxic heavy metals and other wastes covered in Annexe VIII to the Convention.
• A legislation has been put in place for management of biomedical wastes. A time bound action programme has been stipulated for collection and treatment of such wastes in an environmentally sound manner.
• A draft legislation for management of municipal solid wastes in the country.