''Green'' Tatarstan: black diggers, farewell to mazut and illegal constructions on the banks of the Volga River
The Republic's authorities are ready to attract foreign scholars from Canada and the United States to fight with blue-green algae
Prime Minister of Tatarstan outlined a range of problems that ecologists have to solve this year: illegal objects on the banks, black diggers, dumps and blue-green algae. Some problems are so large-scale that the government of the Republic is ready to provide financial support and to attract the world's best experts. Read the details in the report of Realnoe Vremya.
Goodbye, mazut
The panel was held at Kazan State Power Engineering University, its experts spoke about the preparation of the engineers-ecologists. The first floor was given to the Minister of Ecology. According to his report, the air in the Republic, though not much but still has become less polluted. The amount of harmful emissions into the atmosphere during this period decreased by 8.500 tonnes. It is despite the GRP growth. The largest industrial objects in the Republic, such as Tatneft, TANECO, Nizhnekamskneftekhim, have been equipped with a local surveillance system.
According to the speaker, several factors promoted the improvement of the situation. First, they have managed to reduce the use of mazut as the primary fuel at Nizhnekamsk CHP. Second, the state program on transition to natural gas is being successfully implemented. It has helped to reduce the amount of harmful emissions of vehicles by more than 4.500 tonnes. Third, the production of gasoline of high environmental standard Euro-6 plays a positive role here. The operation ''Clean air'' to test 6.200 cars last year showed that only 7.7% of the cars had the pollutants in the exhaust gases that exceeded permissible limits.
In general, over the year, it was revealed more than 7.000 violations of environmental pollution, and almost all of them has been eliminated. The perpetrators were punished and were charged at more than 143 million rubles, which, according to the minister, is 360% of the results in 2015. Together with the Prosecutor's office and the Interior Ministry they filed 24 criminal cases, which is 2.5 times more than the year before.
Besides, the court punished a number of industries for the discharge of waste waters without purification or exceeding the standards. The Kazan city TB hospital, Vysokogorsky Municipal Networks, Almetyevsk-Vodokanal and several other enterprises conducted the overhaul and reconstruction of their treatment facilities.
Ecologists have identified 432 cases of access restriction for the citizens to water and they demolished 365 illegal buildings. However, according to the Prime Minister of the Republic, the figure is negligible.
''Our aim is not to demolish everything. Our goal is to comply with the law! So the ultimate goal is not a punitive statistics that this much was demolished. Much more important is to show how many banks we have provided access to for the population,'' said Prime Minister of Tatarstan government Ildar Khalikov.
To catch ''black diggers''
In terms of illegal quarries, ecologists have recorded 244 violations for the year and assessed the damage at 240 million rubles. Last year, in respect of ''black diggers'' for the first time the article No. 158 of the Russian Criminal Code was invoked.
''In the result of joint work with law enforcement authorities, we have brought 21 criminal cases, which three times exceeds the results of 2015. In order to avoid impunity of the ''black diggers'' we have developed new laws,'' said the Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources of RT Farid Abdulganiev.
The head of the government also instructed to strengthen this work. Turning to the heads of the districts, he stressed that mining in Tatarstan should be legal. The Prime Minister allowed turning to him personally, if there are some bureaucratic, technological and other barriers. The extraction should occur within the framework of the law and in compliance with the requirements for reclamation of the object. It also applies to other processes.
''Abandoned banks and woods – it is not what we are striving for. But illegal, unregistered and barbaric attitude to nature in Tatarstan is unacceptable under any circumstances!'' said Ildar Khalikov.
Without Samosyrovskaya and Tagaevskaya landfills
Almost all landfills out of two thousand were eliminated last year,'' reported the environmentalists. The amount of claims for compensation of damage to nature was about 200 million rubles. The Prime Minister also praised the heads of for the work in this field.
The Prime Minister also highlighted the successful reclamation of two problematic landfills of Tatarstan: Samosyrovskaya landfill in Kazan and Tagaevskaya landfill in Naberezhnye Chelny. ''I couldn't imagine it even in a fantasy dream,'' rejoiced the head of the government of the Republic.
To defeat blue-green algae
It cannot be a coincidence that in Tatarstan for the third year in a row it is associated with the environment, said Ildar Khalikov. According to him, a great work has been done in the Republic, new facilities have been built, oversight has been increased. However, they can't say that they've done everything.
A new range of problems is associated with blue-green algae, which pose a serious threat to all water bodies and rivers. In each district they have covered more than a half of space of water bodies.
''The president instructed the Ministry of Environment. Moreover, it is possible to allocate the resources. That is why I ask you to attract scientific institutions, the Kazan Federal University, the Kazan State Power Engineering University and the best specialists, not only ours, because it is the problem not only for Tatarstan but also for Russia, to solve the problem. We should invite the best specialists from Canada and the United States, for whom these algae is also a big problem today,'' instructed Ildar Khalikov.
The second task is to strengthen the monitoring of the environment. Because, according to existing observations, many questions arise to water quality and the condition of air and soil.
They are going to continue the construction and reconstruction of treatment facilities in the Republic. Last year, the start to a large work was given in Kazan: they have begun to build SPS Zarechnaya.