The use of PCBs-contaminated transformer oil can have serious impact on environment and human health. It can hamper the fertility of soil and affect human hormones. It has also been found partly responsible for causing several types of cancers. [break]
Although the NEA has no readily available data about the amount of the PCBs-contaminated oil and the number of transformers which contain the highly-hazardous PCBs, a study conducted by the MoE shortly after the ratification of the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) revealed that Nepal has 106,000-liters transformer oil contaminated with the PCBs.
According to Dr Bhupendra Devkota, an environment expert at the MoE who led the study on the PCBs, the PCBs-contaminated oil is in transformers and barrels located across the country. "Some people have suffered from the use of the PCBs-contaminated oil," Dr Devkota said. "It is, therefore, important to dispose of it at the earliest."
The Ministry of Environment (MoE) recently launched a three-year project that aims at finding out the actual number of transformers containing the PCBs-contaminated oil with financial support from the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and technical contribution of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO).
The MoE will also assess the concentration of PCBs in transformer oil apart from disposing of some 67 tons of PCBs and the PCBs-containing equipments and wastes.
Until the late 1990s, the NEA was absolutely unmindful of the hazardous impacts of the PCBs-contaminated oil used as dielectric or coolant fluid. It was only after the ban on the production of PCBs in 2001following the Stockholm Convention that the country woke up to the hazards of the toxic chemical in transformer oil. The NEA has been purchasing the PCBs-free transformer oil ever since.
However, the PCBs-contaminated oil already used by the NEA still poses a serious threat to health and environment.
Deadline 2025
Nepal targets to collect all the PCBs-contaminated oil from across the country by 2025. “We are bound by the Stockholm Convention to dispose of all the PCBs-contaminated liquid by 2028,” Dr Devkota said, adding, “To achieve this goal, we need to collect all the PCBs-contaminated oil at least three years in advance. We, therefore, have set 2025 as a deadline for ourselves.”
According to Rameshwor Yadav, a general manager at NEA, Rs 1.2 million has been allocated this fiscal year to construct a lab in Lainchaur for examining the level of contamination in transformer oils. “We are committed to getting rid of this seriously-harmful chemical,” he said. “The new transformers we have brought do not contain PCBs and we are not going to overlook the old transformers that contain the PCBs.”
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