You have prevented them from becoming dumping grounds for the industrialized world. The challenge now is to empower them so that they can follow the path of sustainable development. We must also, in the years ahead, begin to think of the environment and hazardous waste with a new logic. We need to encourage the view that clean water and land are valuable not only for their beauty, but also as economic goods. And we must do more to drive home the message that it makes good economic sense to reduce the generation of hazardous waste in the first place.
Corporations already profit from such reductions, so does the planet.
As in so many realms, prevention pays. As you move ahead in these directions, let me assure you that you can rely on the full support of the United Nations system.