4 Mar 2005

Samoa seeks to minimise domestic burning

4:15 pm on 4 March 2005

Samoa's Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment says it's seeking to minimise domestic burning through a wide-ranging public awareness campaign.

A Ministry official, Tu'u'u Taule'alo, has been attending a meeting in Wellington, New Zealand, this week, along with representatives from 12 other Pacific nations.

They have been discussing how to achieve Stockholm Convention guidelines to reduce and eliminate highly toxic chemicals.

Mr Taule'alo says Samoa's main challenge concerns the creation of unintentional persistent organic pollutants, which are produced by incomplete combustion.

He says people in Samoa do a lot of domestic burning, and the campaign aims to minimise this.

"We also have a lot of burning generally - Samoans just burn rubbish. Although we have now a collection of solid waste right around the whole country, a lot of people still burn organic waste."

Tu'u'u Taule'alo.