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MOZAMBIQUE: GOVERNMENT STILL UNDECIDED ON PESTICIDES

AIM (Agencia Informação Moçambique) New

MAPUTO, Mozambique, 17 October 1999 -- The Mozambican government has still not taken a decision as to the fate of hundreds of tonnes of obsolete pesticides stored in the southern city of Matola, admits a communique from the Environmental Coordination Ministry published on Sunday.

The communique, clearly a reply to criticisms from the Matola environmental NGO, Livaningo, says that the government has been unable to take a decision +due to the complexity of the matter.

But it adds that, in the efforts to dispose of the pesticides, exporting them is the main priority.

This is an admission of defeat, since originally the government, with Danish funding, had intended to incinerate the pesticides in the furnaces of the Matola cement factory.

When environmentalists became aware of this, there was an outcry, which obliged the government to contract a team headed by the Mozambican firm Impacto to review the original Environmental

Impact Study produced by Danish consultants. The Environment Ministry says it received the draft report from Impacto in April, and sent this to various institutions for their comments. But to date the Ministry has not received comments from most of the institutions who were invited to give their opinions.

For the first time, the Ministry also publicly accuses Impacto of not complying with its contract.

Impacto did not comply to the full with the terms of reference, and restricted itself to recommending export of the pesticides to South Africa, based on an analysis that is not profound.

The ministry said that this feeling is shared by some of the institutions who have commented on the document, and claimed the technical quality of the document leaves a great deal to be desired.

But the Ministry did have the grace to admit that this feeling is not universal, and that some other institutions have expressed satisfaction at the quality of Impacto's work.

The government now regards its contract with Impacto as over, and the final solution to the pesticide problem will be

found through consultations coordinated by the Environment Ministry.

The communique added that the government requested assistance in July from the Global Crop Protection Federation, which promised to help Mozambique re-export those pesticides whose manufacturers can be identified. This, the Ministry says, should take care of 300 tonnes of chemicals, but leaves a further 300 tonnes still without a solution.

As for the site where the pesticides are currently stored, and which has been repeatedly criticised as a threat to public health, the communique says that work on making it more secure is now well advanced. The Ministry has invited the press to visit the storage depot on Tuesday to see for themselves what is being done to protect the citizens of Matola from exposure to the chemicals.

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