The Project EU CBRN CoE 35 is part of the EU programme on Centres of Excellence in the field of NBQR (nuclear, biological, chemical and radioactive) disaster prevention, preparation and response. In the field of the civil defence, all the countries of this region have strengthened the cooperation among themselves and have shown to be eager to exchange best practices on hazardous waste management with the EU. The main aim of this project is to improve (or to initiate) best practices for managing hazardous chemical and biological products.
Download the EU CBRN CoE 35 booklet here.
After a first phase identifying the specific needs, each country considered the aspects related to sampling, detection, measurement, protection, decontamination, mitigation, transportation, containment, recovery of land and waste disposal. All the while they maintained a coherent regional approach. This included drawing up complete standard procedures and technological solutions for chemical and biological waste. The works included technical and regulatory inventories, training for building skills, workshops and a practical programme on large-scale chemical and biological waste sampling and measurement (for competent laboratories and technicians), in which many laboratories took part in international inter-comparison testing schemes to measure the performance reached.
Coordination with national, regional and international activities that are already in place or ongoing has been a key factor for success that has prevented duplicities and has increased local involvement and the sustainability of this project.
The project EU CBRN CoE 35 has posed a challenge from a coordination and logistics point of view (simultaneous tasks carried out in 8 countries) as well as due to the technical aspect (training given in varying sectors: industrial facilities, hospitals, waste managers, local administrations, etc.). Despite this, all the involved organisations managed to achieve clearly satisfactory results.
The experience and the knowledge of UNE in all matters relating to training and quality and environmental management systems have enabled more than 100 training activities intended to promote the application of testing laboratory management systems based on the ISO/IEC standard 17025:2005 and raising awareness on best practices in hazardous waste management to be carried out highly successfully in the project by UNE's experts. To do so, UNE has had personnel located in the different African countries participating in the project during the equivalent of more than 750 working days.
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