In large-tonnage storages of liquid industrial waste, a large amount of waste from various industries is stored. Such storage facilities are man-made lakes with a wide variety of chemical substances. They pose a serious threat to people and the environment, especially if these storages are designed, built, operated or managed improperly.

Experts of Ecoplatform with support of the German Environmental Agency (UBA) and the assistance of the UNECE Convention on the Transboundary Effects of Industrial Accidents implemented two international projects on the safety of industrial waste storages in Ukraine, combining the efforts of all responsible parties: representatives of central executive bodies, industrial facilities - operators of industrial waste storage facilities, national and international experts in the field of hazardous object management. Of great importance was the involvement of international experts in safety of industrial waste storage of twelve countries in Europe, Caucasus, Central Asia and the United States, which supported the initiative to promote our country internationally. The results of the projects were presented at international meetings in Hungary, Austria and the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on the Transboundary Effects of Industrial Accidents at the UN Headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland (the main achievements of the projects are described below).

During 2018-2020 a group of experts carried out the inventory and research of the current state of the Tailings Storage Facilities (TSFs) in two river basins of Ukraine – the Dniester and the Siverskyi Donets. The studies were conducted within GEF / UNDP / OSCE / UNECE project “Enabling Transboundary Cooperation and Integrated Water Resources Management in the Dniester River Basin” and as part of the OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Ukraine’s activities on environmental security in eastern Ukraine.
Based on the results of the studies, a number of problematic issues about facilities’ operation was identified that require systemic management decisions and consolidation of efforts of all stakeholders to improve the level of environmental and technogenic safety of the TSFs and prevention of industrial accidents of national and transboundary scale.

For more information please refer to the Summary on the inventory of TSFs in the Dniester River Basin (2018-2020), and Summary on the research of TSFs in the Donbas region (2019, 2020). 

The second project was actively participated by representatives of the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of Ukraine, the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, the Ministry of Energy and Coal Industry of Ukraine, the State Ecological Inspectorate of Ukraine, the State Emergency Service of Ukraine, competent local authorities responsible for environmental safety in this field and DTEK, which provided a site for training on the safety of tailing dumps.
An educational component was provided by Ecoplatform together with the specialists of the National Mining University and involvement of national and international experts trained a group of students and postgraduates for the practical application of the methodology, developed in the first project and created an electronic training course on the topic "Safety of tailing facilities". 
Analyzing the implementation of Ukraine's obligations under the The Association Agreement between Ukraine and the EU, namely the provisions of Directive 2006/21/EC on waste management of extractive industries, the project team and in cooperation with specialists from the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of Ukraine:

• identified ways to implement the EU requirements for the safety of industrial waste storage devices in Ukraine's legislation, 
  
• improved the database of industrial waste recyclers in Ukraine (344 sites), 
  
• contributed to the National Strategy for Waste Management, 
  
• held a Round Table on the safety of tailing dumps, where they submitted all project developments to the relevant central executive authorities.