The Dnieper river was on the brink of ecological disaster

The river is in danger of becoming a swamp.

That the Dnieper river is threatened by a disaster, environmentalists say. It once the main water artery of the country was known as great legends and proizvedenijah classics. Now, every year another problem or even more: marine fish, algae bloom, clumps of water chestnut, which deprives the air of the inhabitants of the pond. At conferences and seminars experts are already tired to say that Dnipro need to save, and if you don’t hurry, the descendants only and will remain that read about it in books.

Professor, Department of ecology Pridneprovskaya Academy of construction and architecture Grigory Shmatkov, long been studying the problems of the Dnieper, right now, along with environmentalists raided the small rivers of Dnipropetrovsk. “Well, where is a small river where is the river?” – you will notice, but the Professor says: they are directly correlated. And of the problems of small rivers “follows” the big problem of the Dnieper.

– If figuratively, then the Dnieper is the main artery of the water system of Ukraine and the small river is the blood velocity, – says Grigory Shmatkov. – If to compare with the human body, when clogged microvessels – you have a heart attack. And rivers: small provoke a heart attack at the Dnieper. Small rivers now 90% have lost their flow. In coastal areas people create artificial ponds, build demboski, wall, thus preventing rivers natural flowage. Small shallow river, and together with them becomes shallow and the Dnieper appear of reed beds and Islands are formed.

Of course, on the Dnieper there are built dams and levees that have broken the process of water regulation of water and did more harm than good. And that they “grow legs” environmental disaster of the Dnieper.

– Once in the mouth of the Dnieper were carried out so-called catadromous fish. The adults lived in the sea, and came to spawn in fresh water, – said the scientist. Is Beluga and sturgeon, they were found earlier in the river in large numbers, now they are practical can not be found.

Environmental scientists trying to summon the authorities on the national programme to save the river, but so far this is the voice of one crying in the wilderness. They do not hear, Dnipro, meanwhile, is dying, and if everything will remain the same, then after 150 years, the main river of the country will be its main marsh. But, it seems, except the scientists, at the moment, it doesn’t count anymore.

Problem # 1 – the reservoir and dam

– On the Dnieper, six reservoirs, and from the point of view of hydrology is not a river, and large lakes of stagnant type, – said Grigory. – Research of the academician Arkady Sapara, who heads the Institute for nature management problems and ecology, showed that the contents of these reservoirs, dams and hydroelectric power plants built in close proximity, in 17 (!) times more expensive than the electricity that they produced.

The construction of the cascade of the Dnieper reservoirs, according to the ecologist, have not only deprived us of a unique natural monument – the Dnieper rapids, which was, in fact, a horizontal waterfall, but also destroyed the cleansing mechanism of the river. Passing bubbling streams through the rapids, the water is saturated with oxygen and carrying it to all animal and plant inhabitants.

Problem No. 2 – household and industrial drains

Annually in the waters of the Dnieper dumped millions of cubic meters of polluted runoff. Businesses do not want to clean their waste, and therefore the river accelerated pace turns into a real ditch.

– In the last century, rivers such as the Rhine, Danube, Elbe, was nicknamed “gutters of Europe”, were so polluted their water, said Shmatkov. – However, the special Commission has developed a programme to clean up rivers, including the legal norms of punishment and encouragement of industrial enterprises discharge into rivers their waste water. The problem was solved.

Problem # 3 – algae bloom

This problem is caused by, firstly, a weak flow of the river, and secondly, agricultural enterprises, use of chemical fertilizers. “Chemistry”, getting into the soil, is leached to groundwater that carry it in small rivers, and they, in turn, into the Dnieper. Coupled with the lack of good flow create perfect conditions for reproduction of blue-green algae killer for fish.

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