The Romanian Government has called for international assistance to solve the problem of obsolete pesticides, which comprise a serious problem to food production and safety, to the environment and to public health.
The European Union, through PHARE Programme, supports the Government of Romania to establish a coherent and efficient agricultural policy, in order to prepare the conditions for joint negotiations in the field of agricultural economy. The EU PHARE Programme supports financially the clean-up of 1.409 tones of obsolete pesticides. Romania has an own contribution of 25% of the total support.
In Romania a joint action of the local Phyto-Sanitary Authorities and the local Environmental protection authorities, respectively, has developed a nationwide inventory of obsolete pesticides . A number of 133 storage facilities are listed comprising a series of different pesticides and chemicals to be collected and disposed of. As no treatment is possible in Romania , disposal is foreseen to take place outside the country in one of the EU member states. The tender of contract was won by a German contractor, SAVA . The tender for the supervision was won by the consortium Ramboll . IHPA has been included as subcontractor in the Ramboll Consortium consisting of Ramboll Denmark , Tauw, The Netherlands and UBA, Austria
IHPA was involved as Team leader for the Supervision and for the Technical Assistance

ACTIVITIES

The project comprises two distinct components; supervision of obsolete pesticides clean-up action, and technical assistance to the Ministry in policy and strategy development in order to prevent new stocks to develop, respectively.

Works Contract

Cleanup of a total of 130 designated storage facilities.

Repackaging – the original packaging of the pesticides at the storage sites has deteriorated in time so the total quantity of pesticides will require a repackaging before shipment. Collection and repackaging it is performed in a way to prevent any avoidable release of pesticides wastes (for example a formation of dust or a spill of liquid pesticides).

Supervision Contract

a) The supervision is divided into 5 groups of activities:

1. Planning of Supervision

2. Review and confirmation of Contractors works planning
3. Re-assessment of inventory data
4. Site clean-up (133 sites) and repackaging
5. Temporary Storage
6. Export and treatment

In 2004-2005, Phare supported an Obsolete Pesticides Clean-up Programme, and by the end of November 2005 in total 1.715 tonnes of pesticides waste have been repackaged and transported for final disposal in Germany .
For this project extension, the remaining amount found at the storage facilities in the Oradea and Suceava areas have been repacked, temporary stored in Romania , and send them to Germany to treat them (neutralisation, incineration, and disposal). Hence part of further amounts found by the Phytosanitary Directions during Phase I have been included in the Phase II Clean up programme.
The Contractor’s activity has started after the winter pause, the Phase II programme , in 2006. This programme dealt with a total of 747 tons at 127 sites. Phase II continued in Oradea the clean up the remaining 3 sites (55 tons) and has then moved on to the Suceava region comprising 23 sites (460 tons). Furthermore a number of 101 new sites, selected by the Ministry of Agriculture all over the Romanian territory, have been cleaned up as part of the Phase II programme.

b) The second component, is the technical assistance

1. for prevention of further stock accumulation of obsolete pesticides
2. auditing the Romanian institutions involved in this issue
3. proposing an action plan or corrective measures so that Romania would not face a similar problem in the future;

The main output of the technical assistance for the prevention of further stock accumulation of obsolete pesticides was the elaboration of a Strategy and implementation plan, which comprised:
• Development of a sound plan of measures to be taken by the Romanian authorities with a view to preventing further build-up of pesticides waste stocks.
• Development of revised policies, regulations and procedures for the management of pesticide waste resulting from agriculture practices.

The draft report has been submitted to all Romanian stakeholders. Thereafter a 2 days workshop has been organized at the Ministry of Agriculture, Forest and Rural Development with participation of all stakeholders. All issues have been discussed and final remarks have been submitted for the final version and been incorporated. The definitive report has been submitted to the Ministry.