Ecologists hope to complete waste pesticides inventory using international experience
Kyiv, November 5 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Representatives of Ukrainian environmental organizations and profile departments have said they have conducted a successful inventory of waste pesticides and expressed hope for completion of this process to international standards.
"At the moment we are completing the preparation of new instructions for conducting a waste pesticides inventory to international standards, including experience from the project 'Elimination of Risks from Waste Pesticides in Ukraine.' This will allow us to carry out a full inventory of such substances in our state," Deputy Director of the Ecology Protection Department of the Environment Ministry of Ukraine Oleksandr Posmitny said at a press conference hosted by Interfax-Ukraine on November 3.
According to Posmitny, the Global Environment Facility will include Ukraine in its international assistance budget for 2011 if Ukraine provides a national plan to the Secretariat of the Stockholm Convention.
In turn, President of the All-Ukrainian Environmental Organization MAMA-86 and Coordinator of the international project "Elimination of Risks from Waste Pesticides in Ukraine" Hanna Holubovska-Onisimova noted the importance of international assistance in the implementation of the inventory project.
"Despite the quality breakthrough made in recent years, we badly need international experience and support, considering the scale of the problem in Ukraine, and our limited funds."
Director of the National Center for Hazardous Waste Management Andriy Liubymov said that since 2007 the Environmental Protection Ministry of Ukraine has been financing the removal of waste pesticides from Ukraine for destruction.
He added that in November the National Center for Hazardous Waste Management would complete the removal and destruction of 8,500 tonnes of hexachlorbenzene from Kalush (Ivano-Frankivsk region).
In 2008-2010 the All-Ukrainian Environmental Organization MAMA-86 realized the international project "Elimination of Risks from Waste Pesticides in Ukraine" with assistance of a Dutch non-governmental public organization and with financial assistance of the MATRA Program of the Foreign Affairs Ministry of the Netherlands.
The All-Ukrainian Environmental Organization MAMA-86 was established in 2001. First, it was a Kyiv public organization created in 1991 by mothers worried about the influence of Chornobyl disaster on their children's health.
The organization's activity is aimed at sustainable development of environmentally friendly policies and practices in Ukraine.