An international operation to remove what is believed to be the largest single stockpile of Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT), a banned pesticide that has been sitting in the Chittagong metropolitan for nearly four decades, is underway.
The Bangladesh government, aided by the United Nations (UN) agency Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), started the highly sensitive process on Saturday.
A team of specialists has already begun to clear the hazardous waste from the Medical Sub-Depot (MSD) in Chittagong’s Agrabad.
The FAO’s Pesticide Risk Reduction in Bangladesh project is overseeing the disposal funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and co-financed by the government of Bangladesh and FAO.
The disposal of DDT is highly technical and is bound by international laws, rules and regulations due to its nature of persisting in the environment.
A specialist contractor will take about three to four months to remove the stockpile while trained operators will shovel the banned substance into high-specification chemical containers, under the supervision of FAO experts and government officials.
The highly toxic waste will be shipped to a specialist facility in France inside 42 secure shipping containers for safe disposal as no developing country, including Bangladesh, has suitable facilities for the treatment of substances as hazardous as DDT.
Due to its location, special precautions are being taken to ensure that the DDT does not create dust. The building will be sealed and may operate under negative air pressure to ensure that everything stays inside.
“This is great news for Bangladesh and the people of Chittagong,” said FAO Representative in Bangladesh Robert D Simpson.
“FAO is overseeing the clean-up and safe disposal of this large stockpile of DDT which has posed a health and environmental hazard for too long. This toxic chemical has no place for use in modern agriculture or food processing,” he added.
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Bangladesh imported 500 tonnes of the highly toxic pesticide from Pakistan in 1985 which has been stored ever since at the Medical Sub-Depot, located in the city’s commercial hub Agrabad.
The consignment was deemed non-compliant with technical specifications upon delivery and has remained at the same location ever since.
FAO consultant Mark Davis, an expert in obsolete pesticides, described the DDT cache as ‘highly unusual’.
“This will be the largest amount of pesticide removed from a single location that I am aware of,” he said, adding: “It is also highly unusual in that the store is in the middle of an urban centre– most pesticide stores are in rural areas.”
Dhaka TribuneHe stressed that the operation would engage strict safety measures.
“Although this large quantity of DDT is dangerous and located in a busy urban environment, our operation will apply all necessary measures to ensure that nobody is exposed to the chemical and none of it is spread in the environment as we proceed with the removal,” the FAO official said.
He added that the safety standards applied in Bangladesh were the same as those applied in Europe.
DDT is an organic pollutant, meaning that it persists in the environment (does not break down), is bio-accumulative (concentrates in organisms higher in the food chain (including humans), and is mobile (it moves in the environment, usually from hotter to cooler places) as well as toxic to humans and other organisms.
The consignment being disposed of has exactly the same concentration of active ingredient today as it did when it was delivered.
FAO designed the ongoing operation based on extensive experience and expertise and will oversee and supervise the project with the aim of removing all obsolete pesticides from the country.
