Improving water bodies, Russia launches three major projects

Russia has the world's second largest freshwater resource after Brazil. According to the Russian Federal Water Resources Agency, there are 5 million river and lake bodies in Russia. Water is necessary for human comfort and is indispensable in agriculture, power generation, shipping, and industry. One of the goals of the Russian "ecological" national project is to improve the lives of 76000 residents near water bodies by 2024, and to this end, three federal projects have been launched, namely, "improving the Volga", "protecting Lake Baikal" and "protecting unique water bodies". Thanks to these projects, hundreds of kilometers of irrigation canals and canals have been restored, and thousands of hectares of water surface have been cleared. At present, more than 30% of Russia's sewage is discharged into the Volga, Kama River and Oka River basins, and 10% -30% is discharged into the Baltic Sea, Irtysh, Ural River, Don River and Kuban River basins.

Three federal water improvement projects will be integrated into a unified project and further expanded. Starting from 2025, the unified project will also include an additional 8 major rivers and a large number of small rivers, covering 85% of the country's residents living in these river basins.

Deputy Chairman of the Government Abramchenko said that about 60 million people live along the Volga and its main tributaries, accounting for more than 1/3 of the national population. "45% of Russian industrial enterprises and 50% of Russian agricultural enterprises are concentrated in the Volga basin. 93 sewage treatment plants in 15 regions along the Volga are put into use within the framework of the national project. The project has reduced the discharge of untreated sewage by 30%." Despite this, the Russian Natural Resources Utilization Supervision Bureau found 14 kinds of pollutants in the Volga River last year, including petroleum products, zinc, iron, copper, phenol, etc.

Zakondrin, chairman of the Public Committee of the Ministry of Natural Resources of Russia, believes that the construction of a sewage treatment plant is not very helpful to improve the water quality of Volga, because it has many tributaries. He told Rossiyskaya Gazeta: "At present, there are 16 regions participating in the project of 'improving the Volga', but all tributaries of the Volga cover 24 regions. This is a broader task. In order to ensure the integrity of the project implementation, it may be necessary to study the water body more systematically." He said that the federal project is carrying out a lot of scientific research and expert analysis work, and has submitted relevant information about the Kama River, Ural River Information on the Amur and Don rivers.

Vladimir Klimanov, director of the Regional Policy Center of the Institute of Practical Economics of the National Academy of Governance of the Russian President, expressed support for the federal project. The task of this federal project is to establish a unified system that will help improve the water environment. Adopting a systematic approach can avoid separate actions by various agencies and help solve specific problems of the project

At present, the federal project of "protecting Lake Baikal" is being implemented to rebuild and build a new sewage treatment plant, remove the garbage dump, and release Omul whitefish and sturgeon fry. The implementation of the latter two measures has been basically smooth. Last year, 246.9 million fish fry were released into the lake, and a total of 753 million sturgeon and white salmon fry are planned to be released by 2024. Last year, 8 garbage sites were also cleared. Zakondrin said that the reconstruction and construction of the sewage treatment plant is the most important part of the federal project, but it is complex for some places, such as Ulan-Ude.

Zakondrin said: "Ulan-Ude did not build a sewage treatment plant according to the standard initially set by the federal project. The construction fund needs 13 billion rubles, and the Buryatia does not have that much money." Another problematic river, Don River, will also be included in the federal unified water project. The water volume of the Don River is decreasing, which is related to the construction of water conservancy facilities. To change this situation, measures must be taken in different regions of Russia. It is difficult to achieve this by relying solely on one region

It is also important to monitor the implementation results of federal water projects. Abramchenko recently requested the Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade to study the production or supply of sensors before June 1st to control pollutant emissions to rivers. In addition, she also requests the Federal Water Resources Administration, the Federal Bureau of Natural Resource Utilization Supervision, the Federal Consumer Rights Supervision Bureau, and the Federal Hydrometeorological Bureau to conduct research on improving the monitoring system for water ecological conditions and controlling its changes under adverse effects before June 1st, and to provide recommendations to the government. Zacondelin said that the unified water project in the Russian Federation will be costly because restoring water bodies is an expensive long-term process and there is a risk of work delays. But he believes that the most important thing is to set goals and then achieve them.