Cimișlia, a small municipality in southern Moldova, has embarked on an ambitious and much-needed environmental initiative aimed at cleaning up decades of pesticide pollution. The Pesticide Prevention, Reduction and Remediation Roadmap for Cimișlia (PPRRRCM), launched with support from the EU-funded iMERMAID project, addresses both the lingering legacy of banned substances like DDT and the challenges posed by modern pesticide use in agriculture. The project is designed not only to mitigate the current environmental threats but also to create a replicable model for sustainable pesticide management across Moldova.
The project kicked off with a series of planning and coordination meetings involving key stakeholders—ranging from municipal representatives to environmental NGOs such as the Ecological Movement of Moldova, Biotica, and local agricultural associations. These early sessions laid the groundwork for targeted site visits, pollution hotspot mapping, and extensive sampling to understand the baseline levels of pesticide contamination in the Cogâlnic River and surrounding lands. A visit to a successful use case in San Esteban de Litera, Spain, is planned to transfer know-how on microfluidic water remediation technology, which may soon be piloted in Cimișlia’s wastewater treatment facility.
At the heart of the project is a comprehensive Roadmap that integrates environmental science, policy tools, and stakeholder dialogue. It outlines not only the steps needed to reduce pesticide flows into ecosystems but also long-term remediation strategies to tackle persistent organic pollutants still lingering from Soviet-era agricultural practices. This includes legacy stockpiles that were once air-sprayed without restriction, with severe impacts still measurable in soil and water today.
Looking forward, the municipality aims to host a national dissemination conference in Chișinău, co-organized with CALM (the Congress of Local Authorities from Moldova). There, the final Roadmap will be presented to a broad audience of policymakers, environmental experts, and local authorities from across the country. By offering a tested, community-based model for pesticide management, Cimișlia is positioning itself as a pioneer in Moldova’s transition toward greener agriculture and compliance with EU environmental standards.