Ecological situation in the basin of river Oril within Kharkiv, Poltava and Dnipropetrovsk Oblasts, urgent measures of saving ecological state of the basin of river Siverskyi Donets and ways of its restoring were discussed during the hearings in the Committee on Environmental Policy, Nature Resources Utilization and Elimination of the Consequences of Chornobyl Catastrophe
20 May 2014, 16:25
A comprehensive report on the environmental and hydroeconomic situation in basins of rivers Oril and Siverskyi Donets was made by Chairman of the State Agency for Water Resources of Ukraine V.Stashuk.
Great attention during the hearings was paid to scientific assessment of ecological state of basins of rivers Oril and Siverskyi Donets; ways of its improvement were suggested. Such an assessment was introduced by director of the Ukrainian Scientific and Research Institute of Ecological Problems A.Hrytsenko, director of the Institute for Problems of Natural Resources and Ecology of the NAS of Ukraine A.Shapar, director of the Institute of Water Problems and Land Reclamation of NAAN of Ukraine M.Romashchenko, and director of the Ukrainian Research Hydrometeorological Institute V.Osadchyi.
The speeches stressed lack of funding for environmental protection, first of all, aimed at preventing pollution of water resources.
It was also mentioned that the state and local authorities should pay attention to building and reconstructing sewage treatments works.
Moreover, the issues of redistribution of environmental tax in favour of local authorities and increasing administrative responsibility for violating water legislation were discussed.
It was repeatedly stressed that it is necessary to transfer to the basin principle of managing water resources, as it is stipulated by the Framework Directive of the EU, as well as to bring back the cancelled norm of the Water Code regarding that funds for using the water resources are used for their protection and restoring.
One of the reasons of critical ecological state of Ukraine’s water resources in general, and of Oril and Siverskyi Donets, is excessive overregulation of their basins with ponds and reservoirs.
Summing up, S.Hlazunov thanked everyone for active participation, and expressed hope that joint decisions adopted at the hearings will give impetus to the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, respective central executive authorities, local executive authorities and local self-government authorities for improving the situation.
Throughout a week, suggestions to the draft decision on the abovementioned issues can be submitted to the Committee.
The decision regarding the considered issues will be made at the Committee’s meeting.
Members of the Committee and representatives of its secretariat, representatives of the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Regional Development, Construction, Housing and Communal Services of Ukraine, the State Sanitary and Epidemiological Service, the State Environmental Inspection, other central executive authorities, local self-government authorities and local executive authorities of Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Poltava, and Kharkiv Oblasts; several scientific institutions and organizations participated in the hearings.