The Minister of Fisheries of Papua New Guinea calls for a joint position to stop the measures announced some time ago by Japan in the plant where the accident occurred in 2011. “It would be one more damage for us, who already suffer the effects of climate change “.
Port Moresby () – The islands of Oceania are also positioning themselves against the decision taken by the Japanese government to discharge into the sea the water used for cooling the Fukushima plant within the next few months, after the accident of the reactor in 2011. Papua New Guinea’s Minister of Fisheries and Marine Resources, Jelta Wong, called on the leaders of the 16 Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) countries to take a joint position against the Tokyo plan.
Small islands in the Pacific and around the world,” Minister Wong wrote in the appeal, “face the horror and devastation of climate change caused by industrial superpowers around the world, and in the face of all this the Japanese government considers opportune to put our lives and our precious Pacific resources at risk with this reckless action.”
The PIF, which includes most of the independent islands in the South Pacific, has already established a team of experts to carry out an independent assessment. The group called for the disclosure of all scientific data and information necessary to assess safety and environmental and health impacts.
China and Korea, which share maritime borders with Japan, also called for discharging planned discharges in the coming months, calling for more consultations with all interested parties. Even the Japanese fishing industry itself expressed concern, fearing it would jeopardize its reputation. However, the Kishida government confirmed its intention to go ahead, alleging that the analyzes of the water that has been accumulating over the years and that has almost filled the reservoirs do not show radioactivity values that justify the alarm.
“Who owns the boats that fish in our region? Who owns the production plants on land?” the Papua New Guinean minister wrote again. “We must warn Japan: if it wants to use our resources, it is obliged to to help us protect them. The Pacific Ocean doesn’t belong to Japan, it belongs to the Pacific.”
Meanwhile, Minister Wong also discussed Papua New Guinea’s plan to create an intergenerational endowment fund for fisheries in the region to ensure the future of Pacific economies with sufficient and stable income from fisheries. The proposal consists of involving the signatory countries of the Nauru Agreement, a regional treaty on the sustainability of tuna fishing in which Micronesia, Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, Nauru, Palau, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and Tuvalu with Tokelau participate. . The objective of the fund would be to “eliminate the dependence of our countries on donors and those who consider themselves partners.”
