About 320 tons of pesticides are centralized in the warehouses of Boane (picture) and Chimoio

The Mozambican National Director of Agrarian Services, Mohamed Rafik Valá, on Monday (29/06) visited the warehouse of obsolete pesticides in Boane, Maputo Province. This warehouse is being managed by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) within a project on the "Prevention anddisposal of obsolete pesticides and associated wastes in Mozambique".

The warehouse contains contaminated empty packaging and collected pesticides from the provinces of Inhambane, Gaza and Maputo (in the south of the country), while those collected in the provinces of Niassa, Cabo Delgado, Nampula, Zambézia, Manica and Tete (in the centre and north) are centralized in another FAO-managed warehouse in Chimoio, Manica. In total, about 320 tons of pesticides are in both warehouses. The ones from the Province of Sofala are still to be collected and those gathered in previous phases of the project are in a warehouse in the city of Beira.

With the Monday visit, Valá aimed to verify the packaging process in Boane and to follow the progress of the project of FAO in partnership with the Mozambique ministries of Agriculture and Food Security and of Land, Environment and Rural Development. The packaging activity is being taken over by Mozambican technicians, trained by FAO.

During the visit, the FAO national Coordinator of the project, Khalid Cassam, guided the visitors – Government and FAO officers – through the warehouse, showing the entire procedure and the different pesticide processing phases: The arrival of the pesticides, the temporary storage, the preparation of the packaging spot and the place for decontamination, as well as the different types of repackaging for both solid and liquid pesticides. ]

According to Khalid Cassam, the visit of the National Director was important, since it "shows the engagement of the National Directorate of Agrarian Services (DNSA) in reducing risks caused by pesticides. This motivates the project staff. They saw that the disposal of this dangerous waste [obsolete pesticides] is a concern for our superior colleagues, too".

Also for the National Director, Mohamed Valá, "it is important that the population in general becomes sensitized about the risks of obsolete pesticides". There are potential risks, , Khalid Cassam said, "in relation to the health of the pesticides users, who, by using an obsolete product which has undergone internal transformations, can be unwittingly exposing themselves without the necessary protection". The users can also put consumers at risk by applying the pesticides because "they may be applying other chemical products which leave high levels of remnants in the food. When taken, they can cause severe health problems like cancer, malformations, neurological problems, among others". The environment is also at risk, Cassam said, "since the pesticides may be killing the beneficial bodies for agriculture, contaminating water (causing public health problems, too) and be contributing to soil degradation".

Therefore, it is also necessary that pesticide management be "integrated in the Government agenda", Mohamed Valá said. "We hope that the procedure towards companies importing pesticides becomes more strict from 2016 on", the National Director added.

In the last years, over 334 tons of obsolete pesticides were eliminated in Mozambique. Now, this project, which is  financed by the Government of Japan, the Global Environment Fund (GEF) and the Government of Mozambique   aims to eliminate the risks from the waste remaining from prior cleanup and disposal efforts.Work is also underway to develop a local strategy for addressing pesticide life-cycle management in the future. In addition, the project aims to strengthen the legislative framework for hazardous waste management of unwanted pesticides and associated wastes in Mozambique.