In September 2010 Tauw landed the first project – a brief mission to prepare a detailed program for the United Nation Development Program (UNDP) with three components: improving the capacity of local authorities involved in implementing the National Implementation Plan (NIP); the remediation of five contaminated sites; and the improvement of the enforcement of the ban on imports and on the use of illegal pesticides. The follow-up project had the extended title ‘Consultancy Services of building capacity to eliminate POPs pesticides stockpiles in Vietnam’. The objective was to support the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MONRE) in the implementation of the first two project components and the project was concluded in November 2014.
THIRD ASSIGNMENT
In October 2013, as a Visiting Senior Technical Expert, Tauw Project Manager Boudewijn Fokke reinforced the MONRE project team for the third assignment. It consisted of eight missions, each lasting 22 days. The project locations were mostly in the centre of Vietnam, where Tauw organised various training courses. Ten contaminated sites were investigated. We developed post-remediation soil values and wrote a manual for the investigation and remediation of other sites. We also gave legal advice and supervised soil remediation projects. Moreover, Boudewijn Fokke joined an evaluation panel for international tenders for the destruction of old stocks of POP pesticides.
PESTICIDE BUILD-UP
Until the end of the 1970s large amounts of POP pesticides were used throughout the world as pesticides in agriculture. This led to many POP pesticides contaminated sites which have not been managed properly. A major hazard for the surrounding environment and people’s health. Tauw operates globally in identifying these sites and obsolete stocks of pesticides and providing remediation support. Together with local authorities we work on the remediation of these sites and safe storage and destruction of these toxic substances. We also provide various training courses within the framework of the implementation of the Stockholm Convention on POPs.
