A campaign has been launched to raise awareness of the problem of obsolete pesticides in Belarus and to protest local authority inaction in dealing with this issue.

According to official information one of the largest pesticide dumps in Belarus is located near Verhnedvinsk city, close to the source of the Western Dvina River. Around 455 tonnes of pesticides are contained in this site with 47 different types present including some org anochlorines. Like many pesticides dumps in Central and Eastern Europe this one has no owner.

The Western Dvina is one of the most polluted rivers in Belarus and flows into the Baltic Sea, a region threatened by pesticide pollution.

'Nowadays no single authority is responsible for the condition of the disposal site' says Eugeniy Lobanov, co-chair of the Foundation for Realisation of Ideas group who organised the campaign 'Neither the Ministry of Environment nor Ministry of Agriculture are responsible for the site, and local authorities are also out of the picture'.

On 29 July an international environmental camp 'Clean Dvina - Clean Baltic' started in the area surrounding Novopolotsk situated on the Western Dvina River. Participants at the camp represent environmental NGOs from a number of countries. They hope to raise awareness of the issue among the local population, to convince authorities to fund a monitoring programme of the site, and to prevent cement kilns or incinerators from being used to destroy the pesticides. (RM)