€18m needed to destroy remaining pesticide waste in Moldova

From 2006 up until present day there have been annihilated one third of the stocks of hazardous and obsolete pesticides, including persistent organic pollutants (POPs), which pose a great threat to the environment and people in Moldova, it was said today at a news conference dedicated to the seminar themed “Management of POPs and other hazardous chemicals in Moldova: Problems, Solutions, Prospects”. According to the Stockholm Convention and the National Strategy on POPs the process of destroying the toxic substances should end by 2025. The cost of cleaning up one kilogram of pesticide waste amounts to some €2,000-2,500, so around €15 to €18 million are needed to annihilate the 6,000 tonnes remaining in stocks, estimated Valentin Plesca, POPs Management project coordinator. The Ministry of Defense is currently drafting a project targeting hazardous chemicals. Among the activities planned are repackaging, transportation and disposing of 3,000 tonnes of pesticide waste, announced Maj. Mariana Grama , project manager at MoD. “Costs will amount to €4 million, and the launch of the project is scheduled for March 2009”, she informed. Experts think it is simpler to destroy pesticide waste by burning. Authorities, however, say that it is impossible to set up a specialized utility for this particular purpose. “We cannot establish such an plant because Moldova has limited amounts of chemicals, and after everything is burnt the plant will be neither useful nor lucrative. It is much more convenient to burn these substances somewhere abroad”, thinks Deputy Ecology Minister Ion Apostol. At present, pesticide waste is being processed at two plants in France, which have neutralized 2,200 tonnes of Moldovan POPs in two years. To set up such a plant in Moldova, there would be needed from $50 to $200 million, while the simplest burning utility would cost $10 million, it was said. POPs have the capability to bioaccumulate in vegetal, animal and human tissue, and this often leads to cancer and cirrhosis in humans. It is estimated that POPs account for 20 percent of the total stock of obsolete and forbidden pesticides in Moldova.