Status: unbalanced

Environmental problems are a constant worry for biologists, ecologists, and physicians. Ukraine’s leading experts agree that air, water, and ground pollution pose the greatest threat to humans. Other acute problems include domestic and industrial waste disposal, radiation, and shrinking forests, which are causing a decline in flora and fauna.

1. WATER

Ukraine’s major water resource is the Dnipro, along with the Danube, Dnister, Southern Buh, Tysa, Prut, and other rivers. Experts stress that every year nearly one-third of the Ukrainian population suffers from illnesses caused by industrial waste being discharged in these bodies of water.

“The state of our water and the full flow of these major rivers largely depend on the condition of their estuaries — small rivers of which there are some 63,000 in Ukraine,” says Heorhii BILIAVSKY, head of the chair of ecological auditing at the National Management Academy (NAU) and international expert with the European Community’s research and development department. “Their role is extremely important; suffice it to say that 90 percent of the populated areas in our country are located precisely in the valleys of small rivers and are using their water. However, the state of these small rivers in Ukraine is alarming. According to Derzhvodhosp statistics, Ukraine lost some 5,000 small bodies of water in the second half of the 20th century; this will inevitably cause our large rivers to degrade.”

2. SOILS

Soil has an immense value not only because it is the main source of food supplies, but also because it is actively involved in purifying natural and sewage water. It keeps the water balance on land, acting as a neutralizer of a number of man-made disasters. Ukraine boasts the world’s largest deposits of chornozem. Proof of its value is the fact that during the war the Nazi occupiers shipped out trainloads of Ukrainian soil to the Reich.

According to Hryhorii FRANCHUK, head of NAU’s ecology chair, Ukraine’s stocks and value of soils have been significantly reduced. This is caused by the barbaric and insufficiently considered use of land, erosion, salinization, and the sale of land to be used for quarry sites and other industrial structures. Land use must be conducted intelligently and carefully.

Tetiana SAIENKO, deputy head of Ukraina University’s ecology chair, says: “In the race for harvests, our soils are becoming increasingly overplowed, and incredible amounts of mineral fertilizer and pesticides are being administered. As a result, the soil on huge tracts of land in the steppe and arid zones is no longer capable of absorbing and releasing water; its structure has degraded; and it is full of harmful chemical compounds. All over Ukraine soil fertility is decreasing on a disastrous scale.”

3. WASTE DISPOSAL

As a rule, Ukraine’s waste storage and disposal procedures fail to conform to sanitary requirements. This leads to a high degree of pollution of surface and subterranean waters, as well as soil and air. Ecologists have calculated that Ukraine’s dumps take over some 1,500 hectares a year. All this poses a danger to the environment. “The bulk of this waste is produced in Ukraine by the mining, chemical-metallurgical, fuel-energy, construction, and pulp and paper industries, and agribusiness.

Most regions in Ukraine lack testing grounds with facilities for the centralized storage and disposal of waste. Because of lack of funds and unoccupied land, the possibilities for building modern waste disposal facilities are limited. In the past most waste was burned. Now this is prohibited because a number of toxic agents are produced during incineration,” says Oleh SHULHA, associate professor at NAU’s chair of ecological auditing.

Italian ecologists have produced research that should make us reflect on the legacy we are leaving behind. In 2005 their studies showed that a glass bottle and a polystyrene vessel degrades over 1,000 years, compared to three months for paper containers, five years for cigarette butts, 10-20 years for all kinds of plastic bags, 30-40 years for nylon products, and 500 years for metal cans.

4. RADIATION POLLUTION

The consequences of the Chornobyl catastrophe long ago grew beyond environmental problems, becoming a link in a chain of socioeconomic, medical, biological, demographic, and other problems. Since the files of the Ministry of Atomic Energy of the former USSR were declassified, a number of Ukrainian ecologists have been insisting on banning all nuclear power plants, the sooner the better, condemning them as a risky and hazardous source of energy.

“The main thing is that a nuclear power plant means technology above all, something that cannot function with a 100 percent safety guarantee,” says Dr. Biliavsky. He cites the outstanding Russian journalist G.O. Medvedev, who said that Chornobyl demonstrated man’s omnipotence and impotence. He also cautioned mankind against getting carried away by its omnipotence: “People, don’t fool around with it, because you are both the cause and consequence.”

In Biliavsky’s opinion, claims that atomic energy is inexpensive are a deliberate falsification: the designers of nuclear power plants do not include in the value of an atomic kilowatt such expenditures as recycling and storage of radioactive waste, or expenses connected with operating nuclear power plants in keeping with established safety standards. German experts write that “nuclear energy is less expensive only where safety is regarded as a matter of minor importance.”

5. FOREST

Forests are among the major absorbers of carbonic acid gas. They are the planet’s lungs, supplying oxygen and other valuable materials, and protecting the earth against erosion and dry hot winds. Forests have a powerful health-building importance, since certain trees, like white birches, pines, and fir trees, produce special volatile agents — phytoncides — that destroy pathogenic bacteria and make air curative. Our reckless chopping down of forests has considerably reduced the size of forested areas, making both man and nature suffer.

Tetiana Bilyk, research fellow with the National Academy’s Institute of Hydrobiology, believes that the swift progress of civilization has in no way quickened the progress of animal and plant species; instead, it has accelerated the process of their extinction. This is because their natural habitats are being destroyed: there are too many hunters, too many fishermen getting their catch by unauthorized means, too many lumberjacks chopping down precious kinds of trees, and so on.

All ecological problems are important and interrelated. Ecologists in Ukraine are alarmed that the government is paying scant attention to these issues. “Since 1992 the world has been concerned about harmonious development, but in Ukraine such important bills as “The Strategy of Balanced Development” and “On Ecological Education” still not been passed by parliament. Franchuk says that the education and ecology ministries haven’t even gotten around to coping with the Balanced Development Strategy project, even though this strategy is being actively implemented in most countries.

Experts are also worried by the fact that the Ukrainian authorities are refusing to cooperate with environmental organizations; this reduces public influence on ecological problems to a minimum. They are also displeased with the residual principle of financing.