The expert mission of the United Nations in response to a fire that took place on 14 October 2015. The fire began in a transformer depot at the National Electrical Administration (ANDE) in the Laurelty –San Lorenzo municipality of Paraguay. The facility provides electricity to the country and is located in a densely populated metropolitan area 11 km from the capital Asuncion. The site covered approximately 27 hectares (has), and the fire affected approximately 2 has. Equipment including stored transformers, capacitors, and other materials that may contain polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), which can generate a large amount of dioxins and furans, were affected by the blaze.
On 23 October 2015 the Minister / Executive Secretary of the Paraguay Ministry of Environment officially requested the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Secretariat of the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm (BRS) Conventions Secretariat for technical assistance and guidance to assess the impact of the event and to appropriately deal with the resulting waste. The Secretariat of the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions and the Joint UNEP/OCHA Environment Unit have been collaborating in the area of emergency assistance for more than 10 years, to support developing countries or countries with economies in transition that are party to the Basel Convention, in particular in cases of incidents occurring during a transboundary movement of hazardous wastes and other wastes covered by the Convention. A team was assembled, and the mission took place 9 - 22 November 2015. The objective of the mission was to evaluate the extent of the environmental risk to the fire-affected sites, including the associated runoff, leaks, spills and waste, and provide recommendations for the management of the waste resulting from the incident. The objectives also included assessing the extent of human health risks at the fire-affected sites and provide guidance for reducing future risks. The evaluations and assessments by the team included interviews, aerial photography, and other assessment techniques used to evaluate the situation and develop recommendations.
The full report is available here.
