You can live, but not everywhere. What the environmental rating of Ukrainian regions 2021 revealed
Uranium mining and landfills, ash dumps, mines and deforestation - is there a "clean" place on the map of Ukraine where you can live and breathe peacefully? The answer is in Focus's ranking.
As in previous years, when preparing the rating, we faced the main problem - the lack of operational information. There is still no full-fledged real-time environmental monitoring in Ukraine. In addition, as before, there is no publicly available data on drinking water quality and soil contamination. Data on air quality, waste, and river pollution by untreated wastewater are processed for a long time to eventually be included in the State Statistics Service reports. Currently, for most of our assessment criteria, information is only available for 2019, which we used.
The results of the calculations did not bring any major surprises. As before, the environmental situation in right-bank Ukraine is significantly better than on the left bank of the Dnieper. This is easily explained by the concentration of giant factories in the southeastern regions. At the same time, not everything is smooth in the west of the country either. For example, air pollution in the Ivano-Frankivsk region undermined the results of the region, almost half of which is located in the clean Carpathians. And the indicators of polluted wastewater discharge lowered the position of the Lviv region in the rating.
This time we decided to single out Kyiv as a separate administrative unit, and according to our calculations, the capital is the dirtiest city in the country. Chernivtsi region once again became the leader of the rating. Zhytomyr region and Zakarpattia also entered the top three. The anti-leaders are Kyiv, Dnipropetrovsk, and Donetsk regions.
Principle of scoring for the environmental status rating
When compiling the rating, we used open data from the State Statistics Service, the National Cancer Institute, and the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine. All regions of Ukraine, except for the occupied territories, participated in the study, each region could score a maximum of 50 points.
Up to 10 points - for air quality: the fewer emissions, the higher the score. We also analyzed the State Statistics Service data on the decrease or increase in the volume of industrial emissions into the atmosphere in 2019 compared to 2014 to determine the dynamics of changes. For this indicator, the region could get a maximum of 5 points.
Another 10 points - for the level of hazardous waste generation of I-III hazard classes: the less waste, the higher the score. Up to 5 points could be obtained for the total volume of waste generation, including household waste. Also, each region could get 10 points for the level of polluted water discharge.
Up to 10 points were awarded to regions for an indicator that indirectly characterizes the state of the environment - the number of detected oncological diseases. To calculate the average values, we took the statistics of the National Cancer Institute on the number of patients detected in 2019 and information on the population operated by the State Statistics Service.
To derive realistic indicators, in the case of Donetsk and Luhansk regions, we used the estimate of the real population prepared by the Cabinet of Ministers in 2020 - it is approximately half of the State Statistics Service data. And yet, the incidence rates in Luhansk region turned out to be unexpectedly low. We assume that the explanation may be that many industrial cities of the region remained on the other side of the demarcation line, and the controlled territory has more rural, cleaner regions. It is also quite possible that there are problems with the diagnosis of malignant neoplasms in the frontline areas.
Chernivtsi region - 1st place
Place in the 2020 rating - 1
Zhytomyr region - 2nd place
Place in the 2020 rating - 8
Zakarpattia region - 3rd place
Place in the 2020 rating - 3
Volyn region - 4th place
Place in the 2020 rating - 6
Rivne region - 5th place
Place in the 2020 rating - 2
Khmelnytskyi region - 6th place
Place in the 2020 rating - 10
Luhansk region - 7th place
Place in the 2020 rating - 4
Kyiv region - 8th place
Place in the 2020 rating - 9
Vinnytsia region - 9-10th places
Place in the 2020 rating - 7
Chernihiv region - 9-10th places
Place in the 2020 rating - 5
Odesa region - 11-12th places
Place in the 2020 rating - 14
Cherkasy region - 11-12th places
Place in the 2020 rating - 11
Kherson region - 13th place
Place in the 2020 rating - 21
Ternopil region - 14-15th places
Place in the 2020 rating - 13
Kirovohrad region - 14-15th places
Place in the 2020 rating - 18
Lviv region - 16-18th places
Place in the 2020 rating - 16
Ivano-Frankivsk region - 16-18th places
Place in the 2020 rating - 17
Mykolaiv region - 16-18th places
Place in the 2020 rating - 15
Sumy region - 19th place
Place in the 2020 rating - 22
Kharkiv region - 20-21st places
Place in the 2020 rating - 12
Poltava region - 20-21st places
Place in the 2020 rating - 19
Zaporizhzhia region - 22nd place
Place in the 2020 rating - 20
Donetsk region - 23rd place
Place in the 2020 rating - 24
Dnipropetrovsk region - 24th place
Place in the 2020 rating - 23
Kyiv - 25th place
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