Over 500 factors of negative environmental impact detected during helicopter raid above Kazanka

This year, ecologists have carried out a helicopter raid above the Kazanka River and its affluxes. As a result, more than 500 factors of a negative environmental impact have been detected, said head of the Water Body Protection Department of the Tatarstan Ministry of Environment Vyacheslav Dolgov when talking about the first stage of a pilot project designed to improve the state of the river.

“It is manmade factors, that’s to say, landfills in water protection areas, the location of agricultural enterprises near the riverbank belt, land cultivation, the restriction of free access, discharge of sewage to water bodies <...>. Also, there were natural factors too, it is tree tilling,” he specified. What is more, they found out the riverbanks were destroyed.

It is planned to carry out another raid by helicopter. Its goal is to track the dynamics of changes and find new factors of the negative impact.

Also, ecologists went on a trip along the Kazanka River. 20 people participated in it.

As First Vice Minister of Environment and Natural Resources of Tatarstan Ayrat Shigapov said, nowadays more than 600 potential sites of pollution of the Kazanka have been detected. They are ranked according to the danger rate.

It should be reminded that a pilot project exploring random and organised sources of river pollution started in Kazan in spring. The Kazanka River became the first site where water samples were taken every day during the flood to find the main sources of pollution and find solutions. The Tatarstan Ministry of Environment and the regional office of the Russian Geographical Society implement the project.