Participants in a national environmental program will work out and implement a range of methods for stopping pollution with chemical substances in Moldova, Info-Prim Neo reports. On Friday, the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources (MENR) launched the project “Partnership Moldova/UNEP on building the potential for improving the ecological sustainable management of chemicals in Moldova and implementation of the Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (SAICM)”. The program is implemented by the MERN and the United Nations Environment Program aiming to receive the assistance of the Government of the Republic of Moldova in the improvement of the sustainable management of chemicals and the implementation of relevant environment agreements related to chemicals. According to the organisers, the purpose of the project implementation program is to reduce anthropogenic pollution, increase the level of awareness concerning the problem of chemicals among decision makers, industrial managers and the civil society. It is also expected that the implementation of the project will lead to the creation of a mechanism for registering the measures for reduction of pollution with chemicals, identifying the problems related to chemicals in relation with the human health and the environment, working out the National Profile for chemicals management as well as the formulation of a new action plan for the implementation of the SAICM. In the opinion of the MERN consultant, Marduhaeva Ludmila, this project is important because Moldova suffers from a range of persistent environmental and health problems caused by the side effects of the chemicals and wastes. At the moment, Moldova lacks a chemicals management system as well as a legal and normative framework in this direction, which raises a lot of risks for the public health, Marduhaeva concluded. The total budget of the project is 271,391 US dollars, 21,449 being allotted by the Moldovan Government. The money will be administered by the MERN, assisted by UNEP. The project will be implemented in the period between January 2008 and December 2009, skipping the Transnistrian region.