President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih has ratified the bill on use of pesticides passed by the Parliament.
The bill was proposed by the government for reasons such as regulating the use, production, import, export, sale and destruction of pesticides in the Maldives as well as taking action on the use of pesticides leading to damage on general health and the environment. Hence the government stated that it finds absolutely necessary to formulate a legal framework to draw out the required policies and regulations to address the matter.
Once the bill takes effect, a unit would be formulated under the ministry tasked with all matters relating for farming, which would be responsible for enforcing the new law.
Apart from this state own laboratories would be established in order to run necessary tests on pesticides as well as to take action to prevent any harm that may be caused by pesticides. The law also requires all sale of pesticides to be monitored and for the statistics to be calculated, evaluated and shared.
Any person in violation with the law would be fined with an amount no less than MVR5000 and no more than MVR100,000.
The bill was passed by the parliament on 27 November, 2019
