Last Friday in Khmelnytsky region in the town of Polonne there was a joint meeting of Khmelnytsky and Zhytomyr regional commissions on technogenic and ecological safety and emergencies. During which there was developed a set of measures for overcoming the environmental disaster, resulting from pollution of the rivers Homora and Sluch.
The meeting was attended by the heads of Zhytomyr and Khmelnytsky Regional Administrations, Deputy Minister of Ecology Victor Vakarash, heads of regional offices of the State Ecological Inspection and State Water Resources Agency.
The participants, in particular, agreed that Khmelnytsky and Zhytomyr Regional Councils will allocate funds for developing a project of cleaning riverbeds of the Homora and Sluch rivers, and “Poninkivska Cardboard and Paper Factory”, which is the largest polluter, will clear the rivers with its equipment. The work is planned to be started after elaboration of the project and its environmental assessment.
The Commission has also examined the waste treatment facilities of “Poninkivska Cardboard and Paper Factory”. Now their condition does not comply with the requirements and the threat of accidental discharges into water is quite high.
According to the Minister of Ecology Ostap Semerak, the State Ecological Inspection will continue monitoring the rivers. There are 18 positions that select water.
“I hope that now the residents of our region won’t suffer from pollution of the rivers. After Zhytomyr Regional Council adopted an appeal to the Prosecutor General’s Office and the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources at the UKROP’s initiative, and after the protests in Baranivka district and under the Cabinet of Ministers in Kyiv, there is a hope that the authorities have heard us and the problem has been taken up,” said the head of the UKROP faction in Zhytomyr Regional Council Nataliya Kokitko.
It is to be recalled, on June 7 near the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine in Kyiv with the UKROP’s support there was held a rally of civic activists from Zhytomyr, Rivne and Khmelnytsky regions. People demanded to immediately solve the problem of pollution of the rivers Homora and Sluch and to punish the company-perpetrator. Protesters handed their demands to the Minister of Ecology Ostap Semerak. In addition, a group of MPs from the “Ukrainian Association of Patriots – UKROP” have registered in the Verkhovna Rada the so-called draft law on Sluch, which strengthen responsibility for the pollution of seas, surface and groundwater and drinking water sources.
