Equipment worth RD$ 300,000 Delivered to UNPHU, IIBI and INFOTEP

The Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (SEMARENA) delivered three sets of analyzing equipment for refrigerator gas to the Pedro Henríquez Ureña National University (UNPHU), the Institute for Innovation, Biotechnology and Industry (IIBI) and the Institute for Technical-Professional Training (INFOTEP) as part of commitments assumed at the Vienna Conventional and the Montreal Protocol.

The goal of this delivery is so that the UNPHU, IIBI and the INFOTEP can function as neutral arbiters in cases where there is a disparity in the criteria between importers of refrigerator gases and the control mechanisms…

The analyzing equipment for refrigerator gases are valued at RD$300,000 each and were delivered under contract for one year to each institution. This high technology, to be installed in the laboratories of each place, will analyze refrigerator gas which is important to understand in the DR in order to determine how many gases they contain that are harmful to the ozone layer (SAOs).

The goal of this delivery is so that the UNPHU, IIBI and the INFOTEP can function as neutral arbiters in cases where there is a disparity in the criteria between importers of refrigerator gases and the control mechanisms for the import of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), the substance which destroys the ozone lay and which is used mainly for refrigeration and putting out fires.

This delivery represents one of the most important components of the Terminal Plan for the Gradual Elimination of Chlorofluorocarbons being carried out through the National Ozone Program of SEMARENA which is working in conjunction with the Board of Directors of Customs. The plan allows for the import of CFCs only up until December 2009.

“As a country we are committed to this plan of definitively eliminating the consumption of SAOs in order to restore the deteriorated ozone layer. In the Dominican Republic, starting in 2010 it will be prohibited to import these refrigerators, although they can still be used if they have been previously imported,” said Ernesto Reyna, Deputy Minister of Environmental Management who delivered the equipment.

The institutions committed to providing quarterly reports about the use of the equipment to the Governmental Commission on Ozone (COGO) of the Dominican Republic.

The agreement was signed by Ernesto Reyna, in the name of SEMARENA, Bernarda Castillo, Director of the IIBI, José Rafael Espaillat, Vice-Rector of Management of the UNPHU and Francisco Espinal, the head of the technology center of INFOTEP.