At the invitation of the German Federal Foreign Office, the OPCW Executive Council (Link to OPCW press release) traveled to Munster/Lower Saxony on 13th and 14th March 2025 to familiarize itself with the challenges of disposing old chemical weapon stockpiles from World War II. Directly after World War II, large quantities of chemical warfare agents and their carriers were disposed of in the “Dethlinger Pond” near Munster.

These materials are being recovered as part of a project launched in 2023 jointly funded by the federal government and the state of Lower Saxony and managed by the Heidekreis district. They are then being destroyed with the help of the GEKA GmbH, a company based in Munster specializing in the disposal of chemical warfare agents und contaminated munition. The Executive Council had the opportunity to tour the recovery site and visit the GEKA facilities.

The “Dethlinger Pond” is currently the world's largest project for the disposal of chemical contamination. Accordingly, Christian Meyer, the Minister for the Environment of Lower Saxony, described the “Dethlinger Pond” as “the most toxic hole in the world.”