BNACWC holds 24th general meeting

BNACWC Chairman and Principal Staff Officer of the Armed Forces Division Lieutenant General S M Kamrul Hassan presided over the meeting.

A total of 43 high-ranking military and civil officials of BNACWC from various ministries, organizations and forces participated in the meeting, according to an Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) release here.

The meeting reviewed progress of implementation of decisions taken at the 23rd General Meeting for effective implementation of the Chemical Weapons Convention and The Chemical Weapons (Prohibition) Act, 2006 in Bangladesh.

The meeting also discussed the issues of consolidating the country's overall chemical safety measures and taking effective steps to deal with chemical accidents, the ISPR said.

The meeting put emphasis on registering relevant institutions online with the BNACWC to monitor properly all activities related to listed chemical products and production of non-listed independent organic chemicals in the country. 

It also discussed issues of obtaining a ‘No Objection Certificate (NOC)’ from the national authority through the National Single Window (NSW) for importing the listed chemical products.

The meeting also discussed about destruction of long time stored chemical products at Chittagong Port and security of chemical safety systems at other ports.

The meeting informed all that Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) will arrange an international training in Dhaka in October. 

The training will be organized aimed at preparing important hospitals for the treatment of patients affected by chemical disasters or accidents.

A decision was taken in the meeting to increase capacity of Chemical Disaster Response Team (CDRT) formed to take quick response in accident related to chemical warfare agents or other chemical substances in Bangladesh, and to purchase necessary equipment.

The chairman attached special importance to take appropriate steps to develop a lab of Bangladesh Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (BCSIR) as an OPCW designated laboratory, reports BSS. 

Later, the chairman while concluding the meeting called upon all to work together to ensure overall chemical safety of the country and successfully deal with the related disasters or accidents, the ISPR added.