Ecologists Call Upon Authorities To Save Ukraine From Garbage

KIEV, Ukraine -- The scientific council of the All-Ukrainian ecology league held a conference on "Current condition of landfills in Ukraine: ecological, social and economic problems and ways of solving them," ForUm correspondent reports.

In particular, according to ecologists' data, about 50 million cu m or 12 million tons of garbage has been accumulated in Ukraine for the last year.

The total area of landfills is 8 thousand hectares.

Ecologists state that a number of unauthorized landfills in Ukraine increases.

There are 23.7 thousand illegal landfills registered for now.

In this connection, the health of population worsens, air, land and waters are polluted.

According to the data, 897 (20%) landfills in different regions of Ukraine do not correspond to minimal norms of security, while 314 (7%) landfills are overloaded.

According to the scientists-ecologists, Ukraine needs additional 670 landfills to satisfy the demand.

"The number of landfills increases annually and those landfills literally eat plentiful lands. We don't have a system of garbage separation, and sanitary and industrial waste are put together, which leads to some kind of fermentation process, unknown for science."

"To what kind of new viruses it will give birth, we just don't know. We have to work out effective measures on garbage recycling, to provide proper financing, to introduce more ecological technologies of waste recycling and to adopt a law on secondary material resources," ecologist Tetiana Timochko says.

Timochko also noted that Europe tries to bring their waste recycling plants on the territory of Ukraine.

"Our authorities present it in a bright wrapping as new ecological projects. For example, Kiev authorities planed to build a waste incinerator in Troeshchina, saying it was nothing but a recycling plant. Only efforts of ecologists and public managed to prevent the construction. The wind rose in that region could lead to pollution of the whole left bank," she said.

In his turn, the head of the Kharkiv ecology organization Serhiy Razmetayev believes Ukrainian parliament must adopt a law, which regulates waste managing. "Without it local authorities will do nothing," he said.

According to him, the majority of Ukraine's landfills have the first class of danger.

"This is all because of indiscriminate dumping wastes. The most dangerous are batteries, electric devices, medical devices, including syringes, biological material after surgery," Razmetayev said.

The head of Ternopil ecological department Stepan Vadzyuk supported his colleague saying "at least, it is unethical when homeless dogs are carrying amputated arms and legs in their teeth."

"Four medical enterprises were deprived of licenses, and the third of medical institutes got a warning in connection with such accidents," he added.

The ecologists also noted that according to their data, 20 enterprises of Ukraine exceed their pollution quotas by 20 times, but hide these figures and report different numbers.

"In fact Ukraine uses its pollution quota over and above, but somehow we manage to hide this data and even dare to sell allegedly unused one," Timochko states.

Taking into account the above mentioned the ecologists called upon the parliament to work out effective measures to prevent Ukraine from diving deeper into an ecological disaster.

Going green in Moscow

The eco-warriors are on the march. While headline-grabbing protest rallies over Khimki forest have made the most noise, there’s a day-to-day revolution taking place in a city centre flat.

Five campaigning friends have decided to prove that leading an eco-friendly life in the centre of a megalopolis is possible.

The experiment has been running for a couple of months and is thriving – despite the plastic bags occasionally brought by not-so-similar-minded visitors.

Concern over 5.5 million tons of un-recycled rubbish in Moscow every year has brought together Roman, Tatyana, Ivan, Yana and Andrei who have taken it upon themselves to change the situation – at least on their doorstep.

From shaving their heads to save on shampoo to furnishing their home with cast-offs, all decisions in their eco-friendly commune are taken with the environment in mind.

EcoLoft is based in a former “kommunalka”, a flat shared by several families, 15 minutes away from the Kremlin. The flat’s communal past has very little in common with its present incarnation as re-cycling is the main guideline for its occupants.

They take donated furniture, consigning less useful things for the dump. They also sort out rubbish and take it in a special bicycle-cart to Moscow’s very few recycling points, and use solar-powered gadgets.

To spread the green word EcoSchool was launched from the sitting room where they held weekly workshops and meetings about natural food, green design, handmade cosmetics and dealing with police. The most successful gatherings had up to 60 people and there is room for more, organisers say.

To minimize their carbon footprint the friends are currently researching a compost container they are going to install in their flat, to grow herbs in.

“We haven’t decided yet if we would like to have a container with worms, or a different technology based on active blends,” Yana, one of EcoLoft dwellers, told the MoscowNews. “We could certainly grow at least spring onion and salads for ourselves.”

A tiny patch of land would not be enough to realise ambitions for another resident in the commune. “I’m thinking about moving out of the city by spring, and starting an eco house there,” says Roman.

His plans for the future include opening a consultancy agency that would help transform offices into eco-friendly spaces and save money at the same time.

The summer smoke has made a huge impact on Muscovite’s minds and environmental problems further up the agenda. EcoLoft mau have appeared at just the right time, although the day of its opening was the smokiest day this summer.

“Last week we had visitors who volunteered as firefighters this summer. After the fires these guys feel like continuing and are looking for a something they could help with,” says Roman

Harmony does not always reign supreme and indignant squawking breaks out when an extensive collection of various plastic bags is discovered on the windowsill. Clearly the walk is harder than the talk.

“If someone breaks our rules this person meets public censure or has to do some communal chores,” he says. “If it happens again they can be expelled from EcoLoft for a day, or even forever.”

Criticism Rises As Zoo Deaths Mount

KIEV, Ukraine -- A government investigation into numerous deaths at the Kyiv Zoo, recognized as one of the world’s worst, has been criticized by animal rights activists as a whitewash.
The investigation, which also looked into alleged financial irregularities, absolved the zoo’s director, Svitlana Berzina, and the zoo administration of wrongdoing.

Several prominent members of the zoo industry refused to sign the investigation report, compiled by an expert commission for the Ministry of Environmental Protection, as they said it was an attempt to hush up zoo management’s responsibility for the high number of animal deaths.

Meanwhile, zoo deaths continue to mount. Johnny the chimpanzee died on Sept. 1, just three days after arriving at the zoo. Three male penguins died on Sept. 4. The death toll this year at the zoo already includes eight large animals: an elephant, a tiger, a giraffe, a camel, a zebra, a bear, a bison and an armadillo.

Critics attribute the deaths to poor living conditions, malnutrition and mismanagement. Zoo management denies the claims.
The commission was set up in June after widespread accusations of kickbacks and a spate of animal deaths. Several ministry officials, other heads of Ukrainian zoos and animal rights activists were included. Several experts refused to sign the report and cried foul over the violations they witnessed.

“According to what we found out, animals died from poor nourishment, poor living conditions and negligence,” said Tetyana Tymochko, deputy head of the Ukrainian Ecological League, an animal rights organization, and a member of the investigative commission. She says the commission was a setup, and the conclusions of critical members were not taken into account.

Volodymyr Tolkachov, the head of Mykolayiv Zoo and another commission member, said the reason for the horrifying conditions at Kyiv Zoo is unprofessional management. “A veterinarian was responsible for setting the diet for the elephant [that died], but it should be a diet technician.

The people who decide the animals’ menu do not have any education in that field whatsoever. Most of the animal keepers are not qualified either.

For example, animals are often left sleeping on a bare cement floor or occupy tiny cages,” Tolkachov said.

Experts and former zoo workers say that up to 100 employees have been fired or left due to poor working conditions in the last year.

Questions have long been raised over zoo director Svitlana Berzina’s qualifications. She does not have training as a veterinarian or zoo technician, critical for her work.

She was dismissed in June by Kyiv Mayor Leonid Chernovetsky, but has been back at work since July 2.

She said the accusations are groundless. “The zoo had 14 investigations in 2010. Trust me, if any of them would have found any violation, I wouldn’t be occupying my post,” she told the Kyiv Post.

Previously she had claimed that her rivals had poisoned some of the animals in a bid to get her fired.

However, while the police did not find any poison in the dead animal bodies, the Kyiv prosecutor is backing the ministry’s report. “According to experts who conducted the [elephant] autopsy in the Kyiv Zoo, the death might have been caused by cyanide.

However, the case is being investigated by police in Shevchenkivsky district and [its findings] are due by the end of September,” said Myroslava Mushka, a spokeswoman for the Kyiv prosecutor. According to her, their investigation did not reveal any violations of animal living conditions and food.

But animal rights activists said it appears the authorities are doing everything to keep Berzina in her post and silence critics. “As in many other spheres in Ukraine, the whole situation around Kyiv zoo has shown once again that investigations can be forged, critics ignored and the ‘right’ people kept in their positions if there is political will to do so,” said Sergiy Hrihoryiv, head of the Help Zoo activists’ organization, who was fired from the zoo last year after publicly criticizing the animals’ poor living conditions.

Roman Slysarchuk, deputy head of the nature reserve department at the Ministry of Environmental Protection, denies that the commission covered up any violations at the zoo.

“Some members of the commission did not sign the investigation report, but others did,” he said. However, according to press service of the ministry, the report has not been released yet, as all members’ signatures are required.

City officials also deny hushing up the scandal. “We have invited a European expert, who has already arrived. He will observe Kyiv zoo for a couple of days and give us his professional opinion,” said Oleksandr Popov, first deputy head of city administration.

The government-hired expert, Koen Brouwer, of Maguari-One Zoo Consultants S.L. consultancy, backed Berzina as well. “I am confident in her team and I am quite sure in couple of years we can make Kyiv zoo one of the best in Europe,” he told Kyiv Post on Sept. 9.

Anatoliy Holubchenko, deputy head of the city administration, said on Sept. 9 that Berzina will keep her job.“We believe she is able to solve many problems of the zoo…We also have to take into account that problems of Kyiv zoo started before her appointment in 2008. She inherited many problems,” he said.

He said lack of financing is at the root of most of them. “In 2009 zoo received only Hr 1 million from state budget while it needed Hr 10 million.”
While authorities struggle to deal with previous zoo scandals a new one is brewing connected with the recent animal deaths.

According to Berzina, the Kyiv zoo head, the penguins died from an infectious disease they were suffering from since they arrived at the zoo back in 2004. “We bought 14 penguins, and all of them have died except for one female,” she said.

As for Johnny the chimpanzee, she said he was in quarantine as a newcomer and died from kidney failure. “He was born with a poor heart, poor liver and poor kidneys,” she said.

But why did the zoo buy an ill animal? Animal rights activists said they have an explanation – to embezzle money. “According to our sources, the chimpanzee did not cross the Ukrainian border in August, when he was allegedly brought to Kyiv,” said Tymochko from the Ukrainian Ecological League. “We suspect he was either smuggled or bought illegally from a circus.”

Tymochko also says the zoo administration might be concealing mass deaths of exotic birds, which have disappeared from the zoo in the past year.

Oleksandr Stetsenko, a spokesman for the zoo, said the chimpanzee was brought from a European zoo, which he couldn’t name because of the contract.

“The animal seemed healthy, and he died when our veterinarians were examining his condition,” he said. He declined to comment on the birds, saying he needed time to gather information.

Big business denies protester abuse

While activists for the protection of the Khimki forest tried to draw attention to their cause by meeting U2 frontman Bono, protesters around the world have been targeting the regional offices of Vinci construction group, the company that is partly financing the construction of the highway project supposed to go through the forest.

On August 25, socialist activists picketed Vinci’s regional office in North London. The police were called, but according to Melanie Matthews, head of corporate communications at Vinci Construction UK, no one was arrested. “[Calling the police] is standard procedure,” Matthews said. “But it was very peaceful. Very polite.”

Matthews told The Moscow News that the Vinci head office in Paris issued a statement to the UK office, which says that it is the Russian authorities that are legally in charge of the construction project, not Vinci. Matthews said that Vinci Construction UK was not at liberty to comment on the situation as they are “not involved in the project.”
Vinci’s main office in Paris did not respond to inquiries regarding the protest.

According to Polit.ru, Georgiy Koryashkin, a member of the board of directors of Severo-Zapadnaya Concessional Company, works for Arkady Rotenberg, businessman and Vladimir Putin’s former judo teammate. Severo-Zapadnaya was created by Vinci in 2007 and is in possession of a contract to build a section of the road through Khimki forest. Rotenberg’s representative has stated that Rotenberg has “nothing to do” with construction in Khimki.

Dmitry Peskov, Vladimir Putin’s press secretary, has stated that the Prime Minister is “constantly” being updated on the situation in Khimki, but that “everything there is being implemented in strict accordance with the law.”

Among the London protesters’ demands was that “Vinci must break all commercial and other links with OOO Teplotekhnik Company.” Teplotekhnik, a Moscow-based construction company, is responsible for the clearing of the forest in preparation for road construction. The company’s leadership has been accused by environmental activists of employing far-right groups to quash the protest movement against the destruction of the forest.

Teplotekhnik’s press secretary said that the company has no ties to Vinci. “We are the subcontractor for federal state unitary enterprise Dorogi Rossii,” she said.

Teplotekhnik’s corporate website currently features two articles from Moskovskiy Komsomolets, both of them arguing that the Khimki forest protests are politically motivated. “The main defenders of [the Khimki forest] are not ecologists and certainly not residents of Khimki,” says a featured article from August 23.

“We do not respond to provocations,” Teplotekhnik’s press secretary stated when questioned about the company’s possible ties to harassment of the Khimki forest protesters. “And we do not think this is constructive. We have a contract, we’re preparing the territory for construction, and that’s our job.”

On August 7, several Khimki forests activists were attacked by a group of people near the Chistiye Prudi metro station following a picket in defence of the forest.

Although the identities of the attackers have not been established, witnesses claimed that they ran from the scene shouting “Rossiya vpered!” [“Russia, forward!”], an ultranationalist slogan.

The United Russia party, meanwhile, has appealed to President Dmitry Medvedev to halt the construction project in the Khimki forest. No official reason for this request has so far been given.

According to RIA Novosti, the Prefect of the North District of Moscow, Oleg Mitvol, has proposed that the construction be re-routed through the Molzhaninsky neighbourhood in the north of the city. Mitvol told RIA that Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov is supportive of the idea.