Ukrainian Environment Ministry to reclaim 4,000 tons of pesticides by 2012

The Ministry of Environment Protection of Ukraine is intended to reclaim 4,000 tons of pesticides by 2012, Oleksandr Sokolov, the director of the Environment Ministrys department of ecological safety, told 5 Channel on September 3.

In his words, the reclamation will free 10 regions of Ukraine from these chemicals.

"The ministrys task is single: during these three months and a subsequent year to destroy more than four thousand tons of pesticides and make ten regions of Ukraine pesticide-free," he said.

Sokolov underlines, the ministry will fulfill this task provided for sufficient financing.

"For the nineteen years [of Ukraines independence] we have not cleared a single region, and for these less than eighteen months we set such an ambitious task and we shall cope with it. The only condition is that the assignations we agreed upon are provided in good time," the official said.

As to Sokolov, at the moment Ukraine has more than 3,000 pesticide storehouses that keep about 21,600 tons of these substances that have been lying there for at least 19 years.

The executive lays emphasis on that the most dangerous are those warehouses that store 1,000 tons of pesticides and more.

As Ukrainian News earlier reported, on August 25 a chemical reaction of unknown substances with fuming occurred on a storehouse of pesticide and toxic chemicals near the railway stop Peremoha by the village of Krasychka, Seredyno-Budskyi district of Sumy region.

In 2009, then environment protection minister Heorhii Filipchuk voiced the idea of creating an enterprise in Ukraine to settle the problem of reclamation of pesticides and toxic chemicals.