CABICHEM - Kick Off Meeting in Tajikistan

The official Kick Off meeting of the EU CBRN Centres of Excellence Project 65 “Strengthening chemical and biological waste management in Central Asia countries for improved security and safety risk mitigation - CABICHEM” (www.cabichem.eu) was hosted in Dushanbe (Tajikistan) during the 7th Regional Round-Table meeting for Central Asia held on 15 and 16 March 2018. All the partners, the Military Institute of Chemistry and Radiometry (MICHR), Fondazione FORMIT (FORMIT), the Institute of Molecular Sciences and Technologies (ISTM-CNR), the Military Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology (MIHE) and the Fondazione Alessandro Volta (FAV), attended. All these organizations will act for the three years duration of CABICHEM as implementers of the project.

CABICHEM, funded by the European Union through its Instrument contributing to Stability and Peace, has as beneficiaries partner countries of the Central Asia region, namely the Kyrgyz Republic, Mongolia, Pakistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. The project aims to strengthen existing chemical and biological waste management capabilities to ensure safe and secure collection, transportation, separation, processing, storage, disposal and inventory of hazardous CB waste originated by local industry (CB waste producers and CB waste management facilities), trade, agriculture, health care and past practices (dumping sites, historical industrial sites, former military bases etc.), as well as a consequence of emergency situations. CABICHEM seeks to support national and regional bodies involved in the waste management main issues as well as to assist countries in reviewing and evaluating their legislative provisions on the matter. Awareness raising on the issues associated with chemical and biological waste management and training activities, including the train-the-trainer approach, have been designed to complement support to experts with wide-scope actions addressed to general public.

In particular, during the CABICHEM Kick Off Meeting, the representatives of the CABICHEM partners had the opportunity to present the project in general and the tasks his/her organisation have the responsibility for in the afternoon of the first day. The event enabled the CABICHEM Consortium members to meet most of the National Focal Points of the Central Asia region, the representatives of the National Teams, the Head of Regional Secretariat, Mr. Bakhtiyor Gylyamov, the Regional Coordinator, Ms. Fanny Fert, the representative of the Delegation of the European union to Pakistan, Ms. Maria Groeneveld, the EC Project Officer for CABICHEM, Mr. Tristan Simonart. The Kick Off meeting of the CABICHEM gave the opportunity to the implementers of the consortium to enter in a first direct contact with the project beneficiaries and to collect preliminary needs and expectations of the region in terms of support to safe management of chemical and biological waste.

For any further information on the CABICHEM project http://www.cabichem.eu.