IHPA has officially requested 5 EU Director Generals (DG Development Director-General Mr. Fokion Fotiadis, DG Environment, Director-General Karl Falkenberg, DG External Relations: Acting Director-General Karel Kovanda, DG Europe Aid: Director-General Koos Richelle and DG Enterprise: Director-General Heinz Zourek) to come forward with a plan on Obsolete Pesticides in Eastern European Countries, the Caucasus and Central Asian Countries

In the letter IHPA further states :

The increasing number of emergency cases that have come up recently, in Armenia, Kyrgyzstan and Ukraine and which have been presented during the Hearing, urge for a well planned action program in order to firstly obtain a complete overview of the problems in each of the countries, assess the higher and lower risks of the various locations and take fast actions where needed, and invite and urge the countries concerned to develop proper plans in order to deal with the other locations in the long run.

Working on obsolete pesticides over the past 18 years, we conclude that at this moment the combination of urgent cases, proven commitment of local politicians and willingness to join forces in joint approaches create a unique opportunity to accelerate the solving of the problem of obsolete pesticides. But we also realize that is only possible with a substantial support of the EU. We are at the opinion that non-action could be evaluated afterwards as a mistake from as well an environmental as cost point of view.

For further details see appended:

Letter to Development Director-General Mr. Fokion Fotiadis

Paypal:

Bank transfers:

Please use the account of IHPA at ING Bank, Zwolle, the Netherlands:

IBAN: NL10 INGB 0660 6907 99
BIC: INGBNL2A
Accountholder: Stichting International HCH & Pesticides Association, Deventer, The Netherlands

There are different ways to donate:

• Simply donate a small sum from 100 € to 1000 € or whatever you feel could help

• Donate to a specific issue or project, which can be activities you personally or your organization would like to start up in a specific country or region of that country, where problems of obsolete and POPs pesticides need urgent attention

• Donate special trainings on inventory, repackaging of obsolete and POPs pesticides and public awareness which we organize together with our partners

• Donate on ongoing projects or projects under preparation or in start-up phase, which IHPA implements with its partners (Tauw, Milieukontakt International, Stichting Natuur en Milieu, Green Cross http://obsoletepesticides.net/ ) or which IHPA implements for UN or other organizations

• Donate for the organization of the International HCH and Pesticides Forum, which is held bi-annually and entirely financed by donors and it the main international event on obsolete and POPs pesticides on the globe

You can discuss these issues with us by phoning us +454541031 or mailing us at john.vijgen@ihpa.info and we will call you back and discuss your ideas.

Please find the Conclusions of the mini-hearing on “Obsolete pesticides” and other presentations according to programme:

• Ria Oomen-Ruijten, MEP – Obsolete pesticides Mini Hearing – 29 June 2010 – European Parliament ASP 3 E 2
• OSCE Ambassador Sergey Kapinos, Armenia – Nubarashen POPs pesticides burial site in Armenia. Emergency case
• Richard Thompson, Joergen Maersk Pedersen, FAO – Obsolete Pesticides in Eastern Europe, Caucasus and Central Asia
• First Deputy Minister Vitalii Boot, Oleksander Ovdiienko, Ministry of Emergency, Ukraine
  1. Ecological emergency zone in Kalush: current situation and mitigation of the consequences – presentation
  2. Speech on “Ecological disaster area in Kalush: current status and further mitigation of the consequences”
• Marta Ciraj, Ministry of Health, Slovenia – Slovenian initiative WHA Resolution + Obsolete Pesticides Proposal in Danube STRATEGY
• Mariana Grama, Ion Barbarasa, Valentin Plesca, Moldova – Initiatives and actions on the elimination of obsolete pesticides in the Republic of Moldova
• Gulchera Aliyeva, ECORES, Azerbaijan – Emergency issues related with obsolete pesticides in Azerbaijan Republic
• John Vijgen, IHPA – EU Commission Plan together with stakeholders on Obsolete Pesticides from paper to reality
• Christian Egenhofer, CEPS – Concrete Steps for Implementation of Action Plan on OPs
• Andrew Murphy, EU Commission, DG Environment
• Statements by Elena Manvelyan , AWHHE, Armenia
• Questions during Mini-Hearing
• CONCLUSIONS and ACTIONS TO BE TAKEN

UN-EC Technical Scoping Mission – Kalush (16Apr10)

Some of the Conclusions:

Independent and scientific sampling has shown the spreading of HCB into the environment at
the HCB storage site. The concentrations in water at the storage facility are a factor 100 (and
in some places far more than that) higher than the Ukraine standard. HCB is extremely toxic
for water environments and is a persistent organic pollutant. The long-term risks of spreading
are therefore high.

Conclusions and recommendations:
Recommendation 5
Given the spreading of HCB, the UN/EC Technical Scoping Mission recommends to urgently
undertake a wider investigation into the extent of the spreading, including identifying
immediate risks for public health. This investigation should use quantitative method with
known detection limits for analysing HCB concentrations in ground, surface and drinking
water (including drinking water inlet points).

Recommendation 6
The mission recommends the urgent clean-up of the HCB storage site and the safe storage
and/or destruction of HCB. An evaluation of appropriate destruction techniques should inform
the actual clean-up. The clean-up of the HCB storage site and waste dump site should be done
with care in order to prevent the spread of soil and particles in the air. Toxic concentrations in
the air could spread across a wide area if the clean-up is not properly done.

Until the clean-up of HCB at the storage site has taken place, the site should be closed to the
public to prevent exposure. It would be advisable to fence the area and post signs stating
clearly that it is a dangerous site.

The online version of this article: http://hetq.am/en/ecology/tunaqimikat-2/

We have the pleasure that the Members of the European Parliament. Ms. Ria Oomen-Ruijten and Ms. Esther de Lange are organizing a Mini  Hearing on Obsolete Pesticides in Eastern European countries, Caucasus and Central Asia Countries, in the European Parliament from 14.00 till 17.00 on 29 of June 2010 in Brussels.  A room for 160 people has been reserved for the event.

The recent developments of extremely dangerous situations in Ukraine (Time Bomb news), Armenia (Emergency situation) and Kyrgyzstan (death of 20 cows and hospitalization of 20 people due to eating of the poisoned cow meat) are reasons to organize this debate and discuss common strategies how to work on a structural plan how to solve the obsolete pesticides problem in the coming decade in the region

Draft agenda

We are encouraging to participate in the very important debate.

You can participate by sending the following information to Mr. Hubert Beusmans assistant of Ms. Ria Oomen-Ruijten at ria.oomen-ruijten@europarl.europa.eu

First Name
Surname
Birthday
Address
Email address

If you send these data, a pass will be prepared for entering the EU Parliament and you will get an official information.

The debate will be in English

There is no funding for travelling available

Information must be sent to Mr. Hubert Beusmans before the 25^th of May

Look forward to see you in Brussels

Yours,

John Vijgen

Dear All,

I am writing you this mail sitting now here in Yerevan working for OSCE and we really need now to generate some direct help for the Obsolete pesticides case.

We would need fast support from EU Commission for urgent actions now and we should also discuss the issue again in EU Parliament to generate now once and for all a permanent solutions for these problems in the near future.

Could you please prepare the necessary discussions!!

Please visit this site:
http://www.awhhe.am/eng/emergency2010.html

As you can see in the photos and the long correspondence, we are unexpectedly confronted with an emergency situation with direct threat to people and environment.

We are working on an emergency action plan, however that will only help short term, so urgently need financial help will be needed.

All UN organisations in Armenia are well informed. An intergovernmental Working group has been established and we had our first meeting with all ministries concerned. All parties agreed with a simple temporary cover action, but request at the same time final removal.

Estimated amounts not completely clear: originally 512 tons (Minister of Agriculture mentioned at least 800-1000 t yesterday) have been disposed in 1982, but the area where it is spread is much larger about 3000m2 with a depth that can vary from 2-3 m, so a max of 6000 – 9000 m3 is possible. Eventually some classification of contaminated soil and pure waste is possible, but this cannot be assessed now. So cost estimates in the end could vary from minimum 2.5 -3 Mill that can eventually run up to 18 -27 Million euro if the amounts are really so high.

Is there any procedure in the GEF, that would enable faster access to funding and facilitate the 2nd phase of the process of excavating the POPs pesticides waste, repack- temporary storage and then in the 3rd phase get a separate procedure for a proper international tender to ship the waste to one of the dedicated incineration plants in the EU. Normally all this would take some years, but here faster actions would be needed.

How can you assist to speed up things to get at least materials excavated , repackaged and stored temporary?

Please advice. We are trying with FAO also to get access to some emergency funding. OSCE ambassador has discussed with Russian government, which is willing to give support on acquiring repackaging materials.

The Armenian Prime Minister is planning to write a letter to international organisations to request further support.

Thanks for help!

Yours,
John

John Vijgen
Mob +45 2344165