YEREVAN, OCTOBER 1, NOYAN TAPAN. A working group composed of representtaoves of the RA ministries of environmental protection and territorial governance and experts of the RA National Academy of Sciences should be set up with the aim of developing measures on removal of more than 500 tons of rubbish at the pasticide burial ground in Yerevan's Erebuni community. The executive director of Armenian Women for Health and Healthy Environment NGO Lilik Simonian stated at the September 28 press conference that they made this proposal to the Armenian government. According to her, over 500 tons of agricultural pesticides brought from collective and state farms in the Soviet time has been buried at the pesticide burial ground built in 1982, and 50% of these pasticides are dangerous and banned resistant chloroorganic compounds. The fact that this area is landsline-prone was not taken into account at the time of the ground's construction: now landslides are continuing covering more and more areas. L. Simonian said that pesticides should be transported to other countries for neutralization, for which about 2.5 million euros is needed. She underlined that greater expenses will be incurred in case of a delay as the rubbish is being spread around because of landslides. "We expect the USAID to allocate 60-70% of the necessary sum but the Armenian government should also make some financial investments," she noted. By the way, the removal of the pesticide burial ground is one of the obligations assumed by Armenia under the Stockholm Convention.

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