Ukrainian Steadfastness
Judging by the reports delivered at last week’s National Conference on Stable Development, this subject becomes more and more topical with every discussion. The issues of the state of water resource, quality of the drinking water, and natural and technical safety are discussed not only by enthusiastic ecologists. For instance, not long ago a National Security and Defense Council meeting was dedicated to this subject, where the real situation was first reviewed. Contrary to the oblast public health and epidemiological services claiming that drinking water confirms to all standards, it appeared that at present there is not a single first category reservoir in Ukraine (that is, containing clear water). This means that the drinking water cannot be clear either, because the existing technologies are unable to make the contaminated natural water clear and safe. Moreover, 25 cities and 375, or 42%, villages have no centralized sewer system, which causes permanent outbreaks of the hepatitis A virus, and, in addition to this, according to medical research institute data, increases the number of cardiovascular diseases caries.
The air in Ukraine is no better than the water. In 2001-2002 15 emergency situations were registered connected with virulent air pollution. For January 2002, the gross volume of the accumulated toxic waste amounted to 2.8 billion tons. Its places of dislocation for the most part do not conform to the sanitary requirements and therefore the ground and underground waters are polluted.
Taking this into account NSDC Staff Director and Professor Vasyl Shevchuk in his statement at the NSDC meeting stressed that we need to speak first of not global but the nation’s stable development. In his view, Ukraine should start by securing social guarantees and citizens’ rights, simultaneously being guided by stable economic growth, conserving its natural resources, and developing its ecology policy. In other words, we should start with ecological and social reconstruction, not a rush for gross indices.
However, many experts (with the exception of those claiming that stable development is a myth and it is impossible to revive the biosphere), tend to believe that one should act only considering the country’s specifics, since blind advice can never bring the results anticipated. This is why the conference’s foreign guests, recounting their strategies, limited themselves with outlining the points to which attention should be paid while working out Ukraine’s national strategy. For instance, Dr. Janusz Radziewski of Poland described local ecology funds created owing to an exchange of a certain part of Poland’s promissory notes to the governments of the US, Switzerland, Italy, Sweden, and Norway. Ukrainian participants of the conference, who worked in the Energy Sector, Agriculture, Water and Sanitary, Production and Consuming, and Natural Resource Management sectors, hoped that they would come to concrete formulations, and, most importantly, those suitable for implementation. At present there already exists an NSDC decision authorizing the Cabinet of Ministers to work out environmental laws to improve the system of preventing emergencies caused by technology and urgent reaction to them. Also, starting next year, all money for using water resources received by the budget will be channeled to financing the water industry development and improving the quality of potable water.
