Yanukovych: Amount of industrial and domestic waste growing in Ukraine
Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych has demanded that the government intensify work to create a comprehensive system of environmental monitoring.
"The government, of course, should intensify work to develop a monitoring system, ensure the adoption of urgent and comprehensive measures and strengthen the coordination of the activity of the authorities involved in this process," he said, while opening a meeting of the National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) of Ukraine on Thursday.
Yanukovych noted that there was currently a significant need to improve the effectiveness of state regulation in the field of waste management.
"The processes of the formation and implementation of public policies in this area are now unbalanced. The waste management infrastructure now has an extremely low level of development," he said.
He also added that as a result of this situation Ukraine is currently facing a rapid and almost uncontrolled increase in the accumulation of industrial and domestic waste.
"This has a negative impact on the environment and poses a threat to the health of citizens," Yanukovych said.
In this regard, Yanukovych called for the establishment of an effective system of environmentally safe waste management, which should ensure the rational use of natural resources and increase the level of environmental safety.
He also added that the establishment of the environmental monitoring system was envisaged in the national security strategy, the main principles of the state environmental policy of Ukraine for the period until 2020, as well as in the national action plan on environmental protection for 2011-2015.
Yanukovych said that the situation in this area should be under constant supervision of the state.
"I'm demanding a systematic approach to resolving these issues, effective coordination at the state level and the adoption of effective management decisions in order to prevent and neutralize threats to national security in the environmental field," he said.
