The main bi-annual event of LINDANET project where participants share their experience took place from 24th to 26th November 2020. The meeting originally planned to take place in South Bohemia, Czech Republic was organized online due to the still ongoing pandemic of covid-19. The main topic of this semester’s Interregional Thematic Workshop (ITW) was ‘health and social aspects of soil contamination’.
3rd ITW and its focus
The Interregional Thematic Workshops are bi-annual events whose main objective is to gather relevant stakeholders, policy-makers and peers in order to share experience across Europe’s regions affected by Lindane or POPs in general. Each ITW has a dedicated topic, the 3rd ITW’s being ‘health and social aspects on soil contamination’.
The 3rd ITW was organized by Czech colleagues from the Regional Development Agency of South Bohemia (RERA), due to the pandemic again online.
The 1st part of the 1st day elaborated on the latest innovations in HCH remediation in the Czech Republic and on practical examples of successful remediation projects done by Czech companies. Technologies like HCH tree bioaccumulation or Wetland+ were introduced, having the possibility of being replicated in any other regions. Several remediation cases presented also demonstrates the active role of Czech companies in remediations not only in Czechia or EU countries but also beyond for example in Africa.
The 2nd part of the 1st day focused on analysis of the social affections in the different regions and on health and environmental effect. The social perception of the problem, economical and social consequences or already conducted studies were discussed, followed by round table discussion on available communication channels in each participating region.
Day two of the ITW brought the topic of ‘administrative measures on how to control the contamination’ into the discussion. Partners shared information about how they monitor the health and safety of employees working on the contaminated sites, how they monitor the presence of HCH in the air or water, and other interesting topics. One hour brainstorming session on ‘social and health aspects on soil contamination’ took place in the end of 2nd day. Partners shared their thoughts and ideas while LAF colleagues updated the mind map created in June 2020 during the 2nd ITW.
The 3rd day of the event was an internal project meeting of the staff directly working on the LINDANET implementation. The sessions focused on several key project tasks such as design of the Regional Action Plans, selection of Good Practices or creation of a joint study.
ITW as an opportunity to meet and work together.
Interregional Thematic Workshops are one of the key activities of the project. It brings together not only staff directly involved in the project’s implementation but also colleagues from other organizations and institutions, not necessarily only from the involved regions. This way the ITW creates a platform where many professionals can meet and discuss their respective issues and bring home valuable contacts, especially those who are not involved in international cooperation in their everyday work.
