There are about 2000 tonnes of obsolete pesticides and herbicides stored in Moldova, packed in the early 2000s. The package of some of them is damaged, especially in the case of liquid herbicides, which are very aggressive, reported Minister of Environment Gheorghe Salaru, quoted by Info-Prim Neo. “In the not so distant past, Moldova was one of the most chemicalized countries. Compared to the European Union, where 5 kilos of herbicides and pesticides were used per hectare, in Moldova we used 100 kilos per hectare”, Gheorghe Salaru told the press. An agency of chemicals will be created in 2013 to promote and monitor the movement of chemicals in Moldova, from production or import until they are removed from the country. The Minister of Environments said that in 2012 five stocks of dangerous chemicals were evacuated thanked to a €500,000 project funded by the Czech Financing Agency. About 200 tonnes of pesticides were evacuated from Ocnita, Cantemir and Causeni districts and transported to Germany for disposal. Thanks to a memorandum signed in September, another 250 tonnes of pesticides will be evacuated from the country. The stocks will be chosen according the chemical’s degree of aggressiveness. “In 2012, 1600 lands contaminated with persistent organic pollutants (POPs) were charted. These are very dangerous because they accumulate in plants and water, then get into the animals’ bodies, and then into humans. The National Ecologic Fund also funded a project for the disposal of 69 tonnes of obsolete chemical reactants from 918 schools in 32 districts. In a school in Hancesti, a reactant from 1952 was found. It was a real danger for students, teachers and for environment and it waited 60 years to be disposed of”, said Minister of Environment Gheorghe Salaru. The projects that are to follow in 2013 will continue the evacuation and disposal of chemicals from university labs and from institutions that used to perform analyses of chemicals, but aren’t active anymore.