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By Judith Perera LONDON, Oct 24 (IPS) - Obsolete pesticides -- those which are either past their expiry date or which have been banned from use, pose a continuing problem to developing countries where stocks are still accumulating, warns the U.N. Food and Agricultural Organisation.
FAO estimates that there are over 100,000 tonnes in developing countries, including 20,000 in Africa alone. Obsolete pesticide stocks pose a serious threat to public health and the environment,'' says FAO Agricultural Officer, Alemayehu Wodageneh.
Some are over 30 years old. FAO has recently disposed of 370 tonnes of unwanted stocks in Zambia and Seychelles -- ironically mostly stocks donated by the West as a part of foreign aid programmes.
The FAO is now seeking finance to run pilot disposal operations in Gambia (20 tonnes), (Senegal (300 tonnes) and Botswana (200 tonnes).
Although no comprehensive inventory has been made in Tanzania, it is thought to have stocks of obsolete pesticides totalling more than 90 tonnes, according to Alcheraus Rwazo, a senior scientific officer at the Tropical Pesticides Research Institute (TPRI) in Arusha.
''The main causes of the accumulating stocks include replacement of outdated formulations by new and more effective ones, the import of excessive quantities, and uncontrolled foreign aid in the form of pesticides,'' he says. Tanzania has no proper disposal facilities and the pesticides are either dumped in open spaces or stored indefinitely.
A survey conducted by TPRI and the National Environment Council (NEMC) in seven regions in 1989 found old pesticides stored at private farms, warehouses and co-operative stores, especially in areas growing coffee and cotton. These included 18 tonnes of DDT.
In addition some 60 kilos of largely unidentified pesticides were found and stored between 1981 and 1991 by the Kilimanjaro Agricultural Development Project in Moshi in northern Tanzania.
The Co-operative and Rural Development Bank's warehouse in Mikocheni, near Dar es Salaam, has been left holding 11,000 litres and 350 kilos of organophosphorous pesticides (methacrifos and phsphamidon) as well as some fungicides (Thiovat) since 1988.
In the cotton-growing regions of Mwanza and Shinyanga in the southern part of Lake Victoria, over 40,000 litres of obsolete pesticides were identified in a 1993 survey conducted by a Tanzania-German project on integrated pest management. These included endosulfan, fluometuron, atrazine, malathion and methidathion, as well as DDT.
The Tanzania Cotton Marketing Board warehouses have up to 20,000 tonnes of expired deltamethrin, DDT, endosulfan and fluometuron.
Finally, at Vikunge farm on the coast, there is a dump comprising 50 tonnes of DDT, aldrin and endrin, part of an aid consignment sent from Greece in 1987.
Both TPRI and NEMC receive complaints about pesticide dumps, explains Rwazo. ''In these cases short term measures are always recommended which include proper storage away from unauthorised people and animals.''
However, he adds ''The government is now aware of the problem and both short and long term measures are being undertaken to solve it.''
Already some 57,600 litres of dinitro-o-cresol (DNOC), imported in the 1950s for locust control, have been incinerated at a cement kiln outside Dar es Salaam with the help of the German Technical Agency (GTZ).
A new project just getting under way with Dutch government funding of 254,000 dollars has begun with data collection. A team of 12 government experts, trained to assess and document unusable pesticides and industrial chemicals, has visited some parts of Arusha and Tanga in northern Tanzania.
Preliminary estimates indicate stocks of atrazine (470 litres), primiphos methyl and permethrin (10 kilos) benomyl (11 kilos), DDT (40 tonnes), endosulfan (eight tonnes) and DNOC (3,000 litres).
Rwazo believes more should be done to prevent the accumulation of these chemicals because disposal is both expensive and dangerous. Importers should be made aware of the dangers and through pre- planning avoid ordering more than they need.
Regular inventories should be made, and manufacturers should be obliged to help with disposal.
''Their role, apart from marketing their products, is to provide information on practical and safe methods of disposal of unused pesticides,'' he says. ''They should also be required to re-ship unused and expired products to their countries for disposal.''
FAO estimates the cost of disposing of old pesticides in Africa to be around 100 million dollars.
''A massive global mobilisation of resources is needed to alleviate the situation,'' says Wodageneh. Very few developing countries have the facilities for proper safe disposal, such as incineration.
''Without financial support this enormous environmental threat cannot be resolved,'' he says. Like Rwazo, FAO sees the long-term solution as preventing the accumulation of stocks and keeping pesticide use to a minimum. (END/IPS/JMP/RJ/97)
