About 40 mines in Donbas cannot operate due to flooding - study
Over 500 cases of violations of operations and emergency situations have been recorded at industrial facilities in Donbas since the beginning of the conflict in eastern Ukraine, and about 60 sites of the nature reserve fund have been affected, according to a study conducted by the OSCE with the support of the governments of Austria and Canada.
According to the study, which was presented in Kyiv on Wednesday, 36 mines in the region cannot continue their operation due to partial or complete flooding.
"Coal mining enterprises have repeatedly seen power outages as a result of hostilities, which led to the shutdown of water pumping systems and in a number of cases caused the complete flooding of the mines," the study says.
According to the survey, the drainage system is currently not operating in areas not controlled by the Ukrainian government - from Yenakiyeve to Horlivka, near Pervomaisk, partially in Donetsk, Makiyivka, Shakhtarsk, and Toretsk.
In addition, a significant excess of nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations was recorded in the rivers Kalmius, Kalchyk, Siversky Donets, and Kleban-Byk.
"The systematic excess of the concentration of pollutants (mercury, vanadium, cadmium, non-radioactive strontium) in the soil in the area of combat operations by 1.1-1.3 times was observed. In some cases the excess of indicators reached 17 times," the study shows.
In addition, the document notes the difficult situation with solid domestic waste, in addition to the remnants of military equipment, destroyed buildings, which cannot be disposed of without demining and neutralizing ammunition.
Ukrainian Ecology and Natural Resources Minister Ostap Semerak said that the state of the environment in Donbas was also "complicated" before 2014, but Russia's military aggression seriously harms the environment and creates man-made and environmental threats.
"The situation with groundwater and surface water pollution remains critical. First and foremost, these threats come from flooded mines. The level of drinking water pollution in this region remains high. The situation with forest areas also remains complicated due to uncontrolled logging," he said.
The minister also called for closer coordination of international efforts in overcoming the consequences for the region's ecology.