Environmental Reporter

THE Attorney General’s Office has completed drafting amendments seeking to align Zimbabwe’s current laws with ongoing regional and international efforts to protect the ozone layer.
Chief Law Officer Donna Muganhiri said the AG’s Office now awaited instructions from the Ministry of Environment, Water and Climate.
“Upon instructions from the Ministry of Environment, Water and Climate, we amended and aligned the laws with developments happening such as the Montreal Protocol and the new substances, the AG’s office took time to do so, given the highly technical information on the new substances and what the new Constitution says on environmental rights (sic),” Muganhiri said.
“We have strengthened and tightened regulations and have amended Statutory Instrument 7 (SI 7/2011) of 2011 and are happy to say we have completed the draft which will be available to the public in due course.”
SI 7 of 2011 speaks on the Environmental Management Prohibition and Control of Ozone Depleting Substances Dependent Equipment and seeks to ban importation of ozone-depleting substances.
Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and other halogenated ozone-depleting substances (ODS) are mainly responsible for man-made chemical ozone-depletion.
Ozone layer depletion is simply the wearing out of the amount of ozone in the stratosphere. Unlike pollution, which has many types and causes, ozone-depletion has been pinned down to one major human activity.
Industries that manufacture insulating foams, solvents, soaps, cooling agents like air conditioners, refrigerators and take-away containers use CFCs.
Meanwhile, Tobacco Research Board’s Goodson Khuddu said more farmers were adopting the float tray technology in tobacco production.
Float trays are meant to minimise the use of hazardous chemicals in tobacco production.
“To date, the new float tray technology, which is an alternative to methyl bromide, has been distributed with over 2 227 110 trays given to producers,” he said.
“Unlike the conversional system which requires watering three times a day and the use of chemicals, the float system can go for weeks without watering and does not require pesticides.
“The float system makes seedlings robust due to clipping severity, reduction in disease pressure, salt injury and limits production costs and environment threats,” said an official from TRB.
The Ministry of Environment, in a bid to increase awareness on ozone layer depleting substances, has stepped up its efforts by training more than 900 refridgeration technicians in the new ozone-friendly technologies, though more still needs to be done.
Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Environment, Prince Mupazviriho, said increasing commercial activities had led to the use of some of the hazardous chemicals.
“Perhaps increasing productivity or commercial activities was the reason we moved to the chemicals, but as we developed further we have moved to newer environment-friendly technologies,” Mupazviriho said.
“As a developing country relying on technologies from outside, we need to see at what pre-industrial level we are and question what we need to do in terms of our own development and what alternatives we have,” he said.
Though the laws to do with the environment are being re-visited, those already in place have tried to control the coming in of cylinders of R134a refridgerant contaminated with Hydro Chlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs) and CFCs which have a high global warming potential.
Border control officials have since upped their game to ensure that products containing ozone-depleting substances do not get into the country.
Zimbabwe Revenue Authority’s (ZIMRA) Lameck Tatswareyi said officers were continually being equipped with skills to nab smugglers.
“ZIMRA officials are continuously being trained to identify smugglers and the many ways they devise to bring in ozone-depleting substances,” he said.
Zimbabwe managed to reduce methyl bromide use in agriculture from a baseline level of 557 Ozone-Depleting Potential (ODP) tonnes in 1998 to only 17 ODP tonnes in 2010.
CFC consumption in refridgeration and air conditioning was totally phased out in 2010 from a baseline level of 451 ODP tonnes in 1998.
The country had already phased out halons and carbon tetrachloride in fire-fighting equipment and industrial cleaning operations respectively.
Now the country is working towards phasing out HCFCs.
As a result of concerted international efforts, the ozone layer is healing itself and is expected to recover in the near future.
In addition, the Montreal Protocol has significantly contributed to the mitigation of climate change by averting the emission of more than 135 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere by simply phasing out ozone-depleting substances.