Reducing and Destroying Stockpiles of Persistent Organic Pollutants Is a Chance for Health in Moldova

Persistent Organic Pollutants Stockpiles Management and Destruction Project

The inhabitants of Ratus village in the center of Moldova, where not so long ago 200 tons of obsolete and prohibited pesticides from the entire raion of Telenesti, which were posing a high risk to the health of population and the environment, are no longer afraid of this „bomb with a delayed effect". With the support of the Global Environment Facility, provided through the World Bank under the Persistent Organic Pollutants Stockpile Management and Destruction Project implemented by the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources, in March 2007 this dangerous waste was evacuated to France and destroyed.

„We didn’t believe that we would ever be free of this danger threatening the public health and the environment", says the mayor of Ratus village, Raisa Pavlov.

In the 1970-80 huge amounts of pesticides were brought to Republic of Moldova to be used in agriculture. Many people who came into contact with the pesticides did not know anything about the risks and did not comply with any of the minimum protection requirements. Excessive use of chemicals lead to an increase of ailments caused by chronic hepatitis and hepatic cirrhosis in the rural area. At the end of the 1990-ies an increased number of mothers were hospitalized, and children with malformations were mainly born in the rural area. Most people who worked with chemicals got seriously ill, and some of them died of cancer.

After the declaration of independence, the chemicals storages lost their owners. Later on they were devastated and destroyed. Until 2003, 3000 tons of obsolete and prohibited pesticides, among which persistent organic pollutants, were dispersed on the whole territory of the country. Pesticide storage houses became genuine pollution centers.

At present, there is virtually no locality in Republic of Moldova with any traces of chemicals. They are everywhere, in the air, water, soil. The protagonist of an old movie, Afanasie Tomailî, was the head of a enterprise importing chemicals. In 1997, sick with cancer, he was saying that in the past, individual protection measures were not taken into consideration. "Next to the storage house there was a well from which we used to drink. We tried not to use water from that well, we knew it was no good, but it was very hot in the summer, so we did drink that water. The concentration of pollutants in the water exceeded the allowable amount by 80 times" – he says from the screen.

The situation is similar in the energy system where a huge amount of used capacitors and oil contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyls (another persistent organic pollutant substance) have been accumulating. The danger that they are posing was not acknowledged. About 26 000 electric power generators and capacitors contain approximately 22 000 tons of dielectric oils which are to be taken stock of and determined if containing POPs.

The first actions to improve the situation were undertaken at the initiative of the Government in 2003, when on the basis of a special decision the units of the Ministry of Defense and the Department of Exceptional Situations started the centralized re-packaging and storage of obsolete pesticide stockpiles. Works were financed from the state budget and the National Environment Fund. In the next two years, about 2000 tons of pesticides from the storage houses of former collective farms were stored. The costs of these works reached approximately five million lei. In 2006-2007 these works continued with the financial support of NATO member states and now are being finalized.

In 2001, Republic of Moldova signed the Stockholm Convention on persistent organic pollutants. Later, in 2002-2004, under the Promotion Activities for the Implementation of the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants in Republic of Moldova" financed by the Global Environment Facility the National Strategy on Reducing and Removing Persistent Organic Pollutants and the National Plan for the Implementation of the Stockholm Convention were developed.

In the following year the Persistent Organic Pollutants Stockpiles Management and Destruction Project was developed and approved. Its main objective is to protect the environment and public health through environment-friendly management and destruction of obsolete and prohibited pesticide stockpiles from the agricultural sector containing or contaminated with persistent organic pollutants and equipment from the energy sector contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyls. Also the project aims at strengthening the legal and institutional framework for long-term control of these and other substances in connection with the Stockholm Convention.

As a result of project implementation in Moldova it is provided to reduce the risk of pollution with POPs to the environment and the imminent hazards to public health; to establish a modern normative system for POP management and control and other toxic or hazardous chemical substances at the national level; and to consolidate institutional and human capacities for the sustainable management of POP stockpiles.

Works on removal and destruction of POP stockpiles were initiated on October 27, 2006 at the Transformer Station "Vulcanesti 400kV". In the following 10 months other 12 stations of the State Enterprise „Moldelectrica" were dismantled and about 19 thousand capacitors with a total weight of 950 tons were transported to France to be destroyed. In mid-September these workes were finalized.

The evacuation of obsolete and prohibited pesticides started on March 16, 2007 at the central store house in Ratus village, Telenesti raion, from which over 400 tons of wastes were evacuated. According to the work schedule, Tredi Company will finalize evacuation and destruction of 1150 tons of pesticides from 10 raions by February 2008.

In July 2007 the project launched activities for adjusting and developing a normative framework for regulation of POPs. These activities are carried out by COWI Company from Denmark jointly and in cooperation with all the partners of the project as well as government institutions responsible for POPs related issues. These activities are to be finalized by October 2008 when the Parliament and Government of Republic of Moldova will be submitted for review and approval the new normative framework on regulation of POPs.

The project also provides for the identification of POP residues and charting polluted areas. These activities are to be launched in 2008 basing on the new legal and normative framework.

Another component of the project stipulates information and awareness activities, including establishing a communication framework for POPs and other chemical substances, monitoring the degree of public awareness of POP issues; training and education activities etc. This component will ensure a permanent information flow for the general public on POP issues and project activities, will engage NGOs in the decision-making process, will contribute to preventing, minimization or exclusion of a potential impact of these chemicals on the environment and the general public.

„The first year of implementation of the project inculcates a lot of optimism to the World Bank on the project being successfully finalized and the World Bank, as implementing agency, thinks that the experience accumulated by Moldovan partners could be successfully replicated by other countries in the region and, why not, at global level", say World Bank experts.