What is thought to be the world’s largest remaining stockpile of the now banned pesticide Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT), left in the heart of Bangladesh’s second biggest city for 37 years, is set to finally leave for France for incineration at a specialist facility.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has led the complex international operation to remove the DDT and to decontaminate the storage site in the port city of Chattogram.

Bangladesh imported 500 tonnes (500 000 kg) of the pesticide in 1985 to control malaria-carrying mosquitos but the consignment was deemed technically non-compliant. Upon arrival it was put into a government compound, the Medical Sub-Depot of the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), in the Agrabad district. Over the years, many of the boxes and bags disintegrated leaving exposed piles of the white DDT powder. In 1991 Bangladesh imposed a DDT ban but the huge consignment remained, largely forgotten about.

FAO consultant Mark Davis, an expert on obsolete pesticides, described the legacy DDT as ‘highly unusual’. “This is the largest amount of the pesticide removed from a single location that I’m aware of. It’s also highly unusual in that it was stored in the middle of a city and because it was there for so long.”

Since DDT does not break down, the consignment has exactly the same concentration of active ingredient today as it did when it was manufactured. DDT is toxic to humans and other organisms. It harms fertility and reproductive processes, disrupts hormonal systems, and is a probable carcinogen. As a persistent organic pollutant (POP), it accumulates in the bodies of humans and animals, as well as the wider environment.

Special precautions were taken to ensure that the operation did not create dust. The buildings were sealed and operated under negative air pressure to ensure that everything stayed inside. Expert Mark Davis, who oversaw the operation, stressed the high safety standards of the removal and clean-up. “This is a large quantity of a dangerous substance stored in an urban environment. Our operation applied all necessary measures to ensure that nobody was exposed and that none of the chemical spread in the environment. The safety standards applied were the same as they would have been in Europe.”

Under the supervision of FAO experts and Government of Bangladesh officials, a specialist company based in Greece took four months to complete the repacking of the DDT at the site. In the hot and humid conditions, trained workers wearing full hazardous material protective suits worked alongside specialist machinery. In some situations, they had to hand-shovel the DDT because it was unsafe to use machinery inside the building. The DDT was loaded into high-specification, UN-approved chemical containers that were then loaded onto 24 shipping containers. The final consignment is set be loaded onto a ship later this week.

Removal of DDT is highly technical and bound by international laws, rules and regulations. Fourteen countries had to give their permission for the ship carrying the waste to transit through their territorial waters, namely Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Turkey, Egypt, Malta, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Morocco, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, plus the final destination country, France. France is one of only a handful of countries that has the capacity to dispose of DDT safely and also allows the import of hazardous waste from other countries.

The work was undertaken by FAO’s Pesticide Risk Reduction in Bangladesh project, funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and co-financed by the Government of Bangladesh and FAO. FAO designed the operation based on extensive experience and expertise as part of an overall mission to remove all obsolete pesticides from Bangladesh. FAO trained Department of Environment officials to deal with hazardous waste. Externally funded disposal operations of this nature are unlikely to be repeated and it is important that national capacity is developed to deal with hazardous waste from multiple sectors, including agriculture, health, industry, and transport.

Robert D. Simpson, FAO Representative in Bangladesh, said: “FAO is very pleased to have assisted the Government of Bangladesh to finally deal with this long-running problem that was unfortunately not resolved much sooner. DDT has no place for use in controlling malaria or in modern agriculture.” He added: “The removal of the DDT after such a long time is a very welcome development for Bangladesh, in particular for the people of Chattogram. Appreciation is due to the Ministries, local authorities of Chattogram, the company that removed the DDT, and in particular the frontline workers who packaged the DDT during the last months.”

Saso Martinov, who led the FAO project which removed the DDT, said: “This was a complex and highly technical operation that took considerable expertise and planning and which was the first of its kind in Bangladesh. We overcame the many challenges through the combined support of the Government of Bangladesh and partners, and through the hard work of the labourers who moved the DDT, many of whom came from local communities.” He added: “This is a major achievement but there is still a long way to go to reducing the use of other pesticides in Bangladesh and in many other countries. We are working to strengthen governance and enforcement of pesticide use in Bangladesh, to improve monitoring and reporting of pesticide residues in food, and raise awareness about pesticide contamination in the environment.”
While clean of visible traces of DDT, it is impossible to fully decontaminate the storage buildings and land which are impregnated with the chemical after nearly 40 years of exposure. The cleared site will be officially handed back to the government next year.

From saviour to sinner
Pesticides such as DDT were once hailed as the saviours of agriculture. Accumulated knowledge is showing that pesticides may be causing more harm than good. The Convention on Biodiversity is calling for a two-thirds reduction in pesticide use globally by 2030, to save biodiversity that is essential for agriculture and for our wellbeing. The World Health Organization (WHO) advocates for removal of highly hazardous pesticides that cause harm to women, and children in particular, and to all people who are exposed to them. The United Nations Environment Programme encourages countries to reduce the use of harmful chemicals and to count the full cost of using these chemicals which includes damage to health, the environment, and trade opportunities.

A global problem
Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) like DDT were mostly used in tropical and hotter countries where they tended to evaporate and move through the atmosphere to condense and concentrate in colder regions like Canada and northern Russia: so this is not just a local problem for Chattogram or national one for Bangladesh but rather a global problem. This is the reason that the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants was negotiated through the United Nations in 2001. Bangladesh is a member of the Stockholm Convention and has therefore been granted support to solve this problem from the Global Environment Facility which finances that Convention.

Pesticide overuse and misuse
Chemical pesticides are overused and misused globally, resulting in severe impacts on health, biodiversity, and the environment. They can pollute soil and water and remain as residues in food that is sold in local markets or exported. Exported produce containing excessive pesticide residues are often rejected by importers and have to be destroyed at the expense of the exporter. The only truly effective solution to these problems is to reduce the use of chemical pesticides. FAO encourages non-chemical pest control strategies whenever possible.

Astonishingly to some, research is showing that not using pesticides does not reduce agricultural yields, saves money for farmers, produces safer food, and reduces health problems in farming communities. Working with nature to produce healthier crops with agroecology, integrated pest management and bio-pesticides, all of which are well developed and widely available in many countries, is the way forward.