The state of the Dnipro River basin is critical: monitoring results
According to the monitoring of the Dnieper basin conducted by the State Audit Office of Ukraine, the state of river waters is terrible. More than 161 pollutants have been detected in the surface waters of the Dnieper river basin.
The latest studies have revealed significant exceedances of synthetic substances: agricultural pesticides, pharmaceuticals and substances used in perfumery - synthetic musk, heavy metals: zinc and copper, as well as mercury," the report states. In particular, the herbicide atrazine, metals cadmium and nickel were found in the surface waters of the Dnieper.
One of the main polluters of the river with wastewater is Kyivvodokanal enterprises. In particular, according to the inspection of the State Environmental Inspectorate of the Capital District, numerous violations of environmental legislation were found at Kyivvodokanal facilities. The damage to the state was estimated at 16.3 million hryvnias.
Only UAH 4.2 million was allocated for the rehabilitation of the Dnieper basin and the improvement of drinking water quality over 4 years. These funds were used to monitor the state of the environment and ensure the development of environmental management information systems. At the same time, the use of the river basin in 2017-2020 brought more than UAH 100 billion to the state budget. The annual volume of water intake from the river basin is 7.4 billion cubic meters, or 78.7% of water intake from surface water bodies of Ukraine. If the environmental situation in the river basin does not improve, it will be necessary to completely clean it, which will put a significant burden on the state budget.