Africa -Ethiopia Stockpiles 1 GEF (FY07) operates in Ethiopia.
The objective of the Africa Stockpiles Programme Project is to assist the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia to eliminate inventoried publicly-held obsolete pesticide stockpiles and associated waste, and implement measures to reduce and prevent future related risks. The original project development objective (PDO) implied that all inventoried obsolete pesticides and associated waste will be disposed of through disposal overseas. However, with the discovery of greater than budgeted associated waste, especially contaminated soils as described above, and the consequent increase in the total cost for disposal, it is preferable to adopt a blended approach of disposal overseas and lower-cost safeguarding in-country based on risk profiling of the contaminated waste, i.e. obsolete pesticides and higher risk stocks of heavily contaminated soils will be disposed of overseas while lower risk stocks of associated waste will be safeguarded (and later decontaminated subject to additional funding) in, country. This approach is expected to eliminate the stocks' risk to nearby population and the environment. In addition, the original PDO assumed zero new accumulations of obsolete pesticides during the life of the project, which has been proven difficult to achieve in the context of agricultural intensification resulting in continuous new accumulations. Therefore, it is proposed that the project focus rather on developing a strategy for management and reduction of future accumulations to be endorsed by the Steering Committee.
