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{
"id": 1265395,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1265395/?format=api",
"text_counter": 375,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Seme, ODM",
"speaker_title": "Hon. (Dr) James Nyikal",
"speaker": null,
"content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Speaker, for giving me this opportunity to contribute. I rise to support the ratification of this convention, which is extremely important. It is a global treaty. I am actually happy because so many African countries have signed in. These silent things that do not attract many of us to the House are very important. People from other continents know that. This lack of interest from us is beautiful to them. They do what they want. We should sign this international convention that was negotiated in Geneva in 2013. It came into force in 2017. As the Mover has said, many African countries have signed it. The main thing is the impact of mercury. Why do we need a convention on mercury? It seeks to ban further mining of mercury, phase down its use and control its emissions into the air, land and water. How does this happen? We have daily use of mercury in gold mining, which is important in this country. The artisans or the small-time gold miners use mercury, to a large extent, in the process. It is used in fuels, particularly coal. We do not use much coal in this country. However, there are some parts which have coal, and it can be used. Some of the pesticides we use contain mercury. Thermometers and sphygmomanometers have mercury. There are many in hospitals, and when they break, what happens to them? Where does the mercury go? That is important. Perhaps, they are still used in dental filling in some of our clinics. So, there is a lot of mercury in the environment. Why are we concerned? We get exposed to them. If we use pesticides, we are exposed to mercury through breathing. We are also exposed to it through the consumption of food like fish. If it is used in industry and the waste is drained into water, it goes into fish and food which we eat. We also get exposed to it through physical contact. What does it do? The main culprit is a form of mercury that gets into the body quickly; Methylmercury. If it gets into the body, there is significant damage to the brain. You get serious neurological defects, abnormal movements, mental disorders, paralysis and people even die, particularly at an acute stage. The worst effect is the chronic place where you get it gradually, and it accumulates in the brain. People get mental disorders, abnormal movements, paralysis, numbness, and eventually, they cannot use or feel their limbs. Because of that, they get almost to amputation. They have many problems. It is worse when it is used by pregnant women because it affects the unborn children. The children are then born with mental damage, small heads, paralysis and pink disease. This is where the word Minamata originates. Between 1950 and 1968, the condition was a big problem at Minamata Bay in Japan. Women were giving birth to malformed children. The people were unaware that it was being caused by mercury. The Minamata women were getting the Minamata disease from the fish they ate. The situation attracted international attention, and the convention's development started. It is something that we should support. The convention provides that we will need technical and financial support through a global environment facility that we will have to co-fund. As a country, we should take advantage of this."
}