Chemicals

Today, using pesticide in agricultural production in rural areas in Vietnam has become a common practice. The incautious disposal of pesticide containers (being thrown out to the fields or gardens, or being mixed with domestic garbage, etc,) is threatening community`s health, and facilitating the spread of pesticides over fields, contaminating water, land, and air environments. In addition to a considerable amount of pesticides used in agricultural production, a substantial amount of pesticides have been remained in the pesticide producers` stocks, at pesticide agents` stores, or even in rural households. The result of a national inventory of pesticide stocks in all 61 cities and provinces of Vietnam shows that about 206 tons of pesticides are now in stock, of which 10 tons are the banned DDT substance. In addition, most of the pesticides in stock are old and hazardous pesticides like Wofatox, Lindan, Dichlovos, and Bassan. The project will be carried out in Ben Luc district, Long An province, an agricultural producing province of great significance in the Mekong delta. The amount of pesticides used every year therefore is quite large, averaging to about 4-5 kg/ha per year. The current status of pesticide stocks and their after - used packing on fields in Long An is similar to the status of the country. 4,165 kg of the pesticides that are overdue, unlabelled, or banned are discovered in the investigation of 608 agents and one drug store of pesticide in Long An under the national inventory of pesticide stock program in the year 2001. All of the stock after being inventoried are seized and stored at the pesticide storage of Long An`s plant protection branch. From that inventory up to now, the average quantity of pesticide stocks and illegal pesticides captured in Long An amounts to 100 kg of different types per month. In addition, there are about 30,000 containers, most of which are glass, plastic, and paper - made, of nearly one ton in weight in Long An province. In order to solve the above problems, the Project will develop a demonstration model to achieve the following objectives: 1. To test treatment methods of burning pesticide stocks and their containers. The project will transfer these technologies and build the technical capacity of safe treatment of pesticide stocks and their containers for the district. 2. To set up a model for the community`s participation in handling after-used pesticide containers. 3. To develop an action plan for management of hazardous waste, including pesticide stocks and after - used containers.

Vietnam