Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources believes

Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources Ivan Zayets does not consider the present natural disaster the result of unreliable engineer protection of territory since, according to him, after the 1998 flood tremendous work was done to regulate river beds, constructing dikes and coastal fortifications. What caused the tragedy was exclusively weather conditions, the minister announced on March 13 during a hot line at the Cabinet of Ministers. Transcarpathia has not seen such an amount of precipitation as this year for a long time.

The work conducted after the 1998 flood made it possible to substantially curtail possible losses. This problem, Mr. Zayets thinks, should be considered within the context of changing climate conditions, such as glohal warning and generally increasing amount of precipitation. The minister does not consider excessive deforestation a significant factor because the State Administration of Ecological Safety has recently taken measures to diminish the territory of lumbering in this region. Between 1991 and 1998 it has fallen to 105,500 cubic meters. In recent years 30-40% less forest was harvested in this region than had been calculated. Mr. Zayets opined that an important aspect in solving Transcarpathia’s problems is cooperation with the states of Tisza basin, since this problem requires an integrated approach. Constructing a large number of dikes and coastal fortifications triggers the expansion of rivers in Ukrainian territory. The recent meeting of the ecology ministers of Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, and Ukraine, where this issue was discussed, has corroborated that cooperation is worthwhile. Yet, despite all this, the minister believes, the problem indubitably calls for local scrutinizing. It is necessary to consider a system reservoirs, the lack of which causes ineffectiveness in dike construction and residential construction standards in the region, and determine whether non-brick construction is at all possible there. In any case, this problem cannot have an absolute solution, for Transcarpathia has the most dense hydrographic network of any oblast. It has a total 9,426 rivers with a total length 16,793 kilometers. Naturally, Ukraine lacks the economic capability to supply all the river beds with concrete constructions.