Evacuation and Disposal of Pesticide Waste Starts in Ceadir-Lunga, Singerei, and Ungheni

CHISINAU, April 23, 2018 — The Ministry of Defense is starting the evacuation and disposal of pesticide waste stored in central warehouses from Ceadir-Lunga, Singerei, and Ungheni.

According to Col. Mariana Grama, head of Military relations department of the Strategic Planning Directorate, on April 22, a team of seven service members from “Stefan cel Mare” Brigade, together with representatives of E.S. Field Services Veolia Company from Great Britain and members of the Emergency Situations Committee of ATU Gagauzia, has started to prepare for export about 60 tons of pesticide waste (repacking, palletizing, marking, fixing, weighing, loading into trucks) from the central warehouse of Gaidar village, Ceadir-Lunga district, ATU Gagauzia.

The source specified that the pesticides were collected in Besghioz, Gaidar, Joltai, Cazaclia, Chiriet-Lunga, Copceac and Tomai villages and will be transported to SARPI Dabrowa Gornicza plant from Poland in order to be thermally destroyed.

Col. Grama added that, by the end of June, 2018, other 253 tons of pesticides will be evacuated from 2 regional warehouses from Alexandreni village, Singerei district (pesticides collected from Balti city and Drochia, Singerei, and Edineti districts) and Zagarancea village, Ungheni district (Artillery Unit’s training area).

These actions are conduced in the framework of the NATO/PfP Trust Fund Project on the disposal of dangerous pesticides and chemicals in the Republic of Moldova. So far, the Ministry of Defense transported to Poland and destroyed 957 tons of pesticide waste out of the planned 1,269 tons from Anenii Noi, Basarabeasca, Cahul, Calarasi, Comrat, Donduseni, Glodeni, Ialoveni, Leova, Falesti, Soroca and Taraclia districts.

The project is financially supported by the Moldovan Government and countries that are NATO members or partners such as: Belgium, Bulgaria, Czechia, Estonia, Ireland, Germany, Luxembourg, Finland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Norway, Poland, Romania, Turkey, and Slovenia. Romania is the project’s leader state. The NATO Support and Procurement Agency is the agency responsible for the project’s implementation on behalf of NATO.