OPINION/COMMENTARY

Day -- After Day After Day After Day -- of the Locusts Africans in the Sahel are also very familiar with locusts, but their great dread is of locusts getting into their crops rather than their hair. The inhabitants of countries including Mauritania, Mali, Senegal, Niger and Chad have their crops destroyed, putting livelihoods and lives at risk. The region is currently suffering its worst locust infestation for 15 years and a contributory factor is that the public health agencies in those countries can no longer use the single best weapon against locusts -- the insecticide Dieldrin. In May 2001 the Stockholm Convention on persistent organic pollutants (POPs) was signed; it came into force earlier this year when the 50th nation ratified the treaty. Dieldrin is one of the 'dirty dozen' chemicals, which include the far more famous DDT. But unlike DDT, where an exemption for use was fought for and won, Dieldrin has been consigned to the history books. Of course countries could ask to use it and probably would be granted the right for emergencies, but since stockpiling Dieldrin in case of emergencies is not allowed, and locust swarms don't usually come with the 3 months notice that would be required in order for procurement, delivery and use to take place, it is a de facto total ban....