Volhynians left alone to save “Ukrainian Baikal”?
The Khotyslav chalk deposit, 300 meters beyond Ukraine’s border, is being actively exploited by the Belarusians, which poses a threat to the Shatsk Lakes
Volyn oblast – Anatolii Hrytsiuk, head of the Volyn oblast rada (the local legislature) sent an open letter to the Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada Volodymyr Lytvyn, and Prime Minister Mykola Azarov. The situation concerning the exploitation of the Khotyslav deposit has been worrying the local government and the Volynian public for a long while already.
Our Belarusian neighbors had been planning to develop the deposit back in the 1980s-1990s, but the state monitoring of ecological safety for transborder territories, organized by both Ukraine and Belarus, prevented the grand project from being implemented.
At present, Belarusians are heavily exploiting deposits of sand in the area. However, it is the second phase of the pit development which is the most dangerous for the environment. It envisages the extraction of chalk at the depth of 45 meters (or even 60 meters and deeper, according to some unofficial sources). This could cause an ecological problem spreading beyond state borders.
In his open letter, the head of the Volyn oblast rada wrote that “Ukrainian scholars believe that works at such a scale cannot but change the ecological system in the neighborhood. Villages, forests, agricultural lands, and water bodies of Ukraine may all be affected. In particular, the local Lypyn Nature Preserve lies one kilometer off the abovementioned sandpit; the national Lake Sviate hydrological Nature Preserve is situated 5.3 kilometers from it, another local Lake Turske Hydrological Nature Preserve is 7.1 kilometers away. Most importantly, the border of the Shatsk National Nature Park is 17 kilometers away from the sandpit. It encompasses the unique relict karstic lakes, including Ukraine’s deepest lake, Svitiaz.
“Due to its unique natural landscapes this area was granted the international nature conservation status of wetlands protected as the world nature heritage – reinforced under the Ramsar Convention. According to the reckoning made by Ukrainian scholars, the development and exploitation of the second phase of the Khotyslav deposit will result in a depressive funnel with indefinite parameters, involving a series of irreversible changes in the ecosystem of the neighborhood, whose consequences are unpredictable...
“There is an immediate threat of shoaling, water area reduction, and even extinction of the unique natural water bodies...”
And this is one of the main points in the letter: “The extraction and transportation of chalk will trigger airborn anthropogenic pollution of the environment.”
The Day, too, raised the Khotyslav issue more than once (July 11 and 15, 2009; March 3, 2010). Yet we are still left with the impression that this problem, which is of worldwide importance rather than just local or national significance, is just confined to the local government and mass media, which sporadically issues yet another cry for help.
The governor of Volyn got a response to his appeal from the Ministry for Environmental Protection, which was charged with the problem by the supreme authorities. Things haven’t moved forward an inch. According to Vitalii Karpiuk, deputy head of the Volyn oblast state administration, who mentioned it in an interview for one of the local Internet sites, “this is a complicated problem involving international relations. We will not be able to solve it at a regional level.”
At the moment, the Shatsk National Nature Park, whose territory is directly threatened by the development of the Khotyslav pit, is preparing appeals to international organizations, in particular UNESCO, under whose auspices the transborder biosphere preserves of the Western Woodlands are.
The junction of three state borders of Ukraine, Poland, and Belarus, is blessed with unique wildelife. According to Petro Yurchuk, director of the Shatsk National Park, a team of Ukrainian, Belarusian, and Polish experts has to be created to develop a joint program for an urgent large-scale special-purpose integrated monitoring of the areas which could be affected, including the UNESCO Shatsky Biosphere Reserve (the Shatsk National Nature Park, Ukraine), Prybuzky (the Republican Reserve Pribuzhskoie Polesie, Belarus), and Western Woodlands (Poleski Park Narodowy, Poland). They will all serve as the basis for UNESCO Transborder Biosphere Reserve Zakhidne Polissia (Western Woodlands). The funds for the monitoring will be available if the project, prepared by the researchers of the Shatsk National Park, is approved by international organizations.
