Skopje, 13 July 2021 (MIA) – Works were kicked off Tuesday to clean up a small landfill, contaminated with lindane and its isomers, located in the defunct factory OHIS in Skopje. “This activity is being launched to eliminate a hotspot threatening the environment in our country,” Minister of Environment and Physical Planning Naser Nuredini said marking the start of works to remove lindane from OHIS’s small landfill. A total of 700,000 tons of contaminated soil at the landfill will be cleaned up. The project will be implemented following state-of-the-art technologies and standards, said the representatives of Polieco, the company engaged to complete the cleanup works. Works will involve setting up a specialized tent at the location. All activities will take place in closed space in order to protect the surrounding environment and the public from all kinds of risks. Specialized filtration units will be installed. Also, all workers will be provided with respiratory protection equipment. Waste or contaminated soil will not be treated at the location itself. Contaminated soil will be packed in UN-approved containers and exported to France and the Netherlands, in line with the Basel Convention, national and EU regulations, where waste will be eliminated. A program on continuous monitoring of the environment will be active throughout the works. Lindane will be transported in France and the contaminated soil beneath the lindane will be exported to the Netherlands, according to Minister Nuredini. The Environment Ministry has established cooperation with two UN agencies, namely UNIDO and UNOPS, to clean the small landfill. “Initially, to implement the project, the Ministry through the HOPS office in cooperation with UNIDO provided funds in amount of $3.1 million from the Global Environment Fund (GEF), which is financing such project for the first time in SEE. The rest will be secured through a multi-partner environment protection fund and implemented with UNOPS,” Nuredini said. The Minister thanked the Kingdom of Norway for its support to the government in setting up a multi-partner environment fund and awarding financial assistance of EUR 1.5 million. North Macedonia’s government, he said, has allocated EUR 1.7 million in the fund and it is expected additional EUR 2.5 million to be provided from the IPA 3 program. Nuredini wished the Polieco company successful works after having confirmed in a remediation plan that all cleanup stages will be implemented in the best professional way, ensuring safety of all workers at the location, safer environment for the immediate surrounding and the residents gravitating in the region. “We will be present all the time to closely follow the cleanup works,” he said. Stefan Sandstad, first secretary of the embassy of Norway, said he hoped more partners and organizations will be motivated to join the project through the multi-partner environment protection fund all the while saying he was pleased the project has been jumpstarted. It's a complex procedure and operation, said Michela Telatin, Head of the UNOPS Office to North Macedonia, explaining that UNOPS manages the multi-partner environment protection fund, which supports the mobilization of national and international resources.