Russia: Water – Great Wealth and Great Problems
By Maxim Shingarkin
Environmental Program Director, Waterkeepers Russia

Russia is a great water power. But her water problems are also great — all the more so because they have gone unsolved for decades. Statistics are impartial and their verdict on the quality of water in various regions of Russia is frightening in its consistency: “polluted,” “heavily polluted,” “very dirty”...

Russia is bound by two oceans — the Pacific and Arctic — and has access to the Atlantic Ocean through the Baltic and Black seas. Numerous world-renowned rivers that can rightly be called “great” flow through the country: the Volga, Ob, Yenisei and Amur. The basins of Russia’s great rivers encompass more than 11 million square kilometers (65 percent) of the country’s total area. Lake Baikal glistens like the purest pearl amidst Russia’s bounty.
Russia’s water wealth constitutes one-fifth of the world’s fresh water supply. At the present time, specialists cite the quality of Russia’s water resources as one of its most urgent problems. Our country uses less than 2 percent of its water resources, yet the overwhelming majority of its water bodies are polluted.

This problem is acknowledged on the highest government levels. The quality of water — both the tap water that flows out of Russians’ faucets at home and the water that represents the country’s natural wealth — is increasingly a key topic of speeches by leading politicians. During a discussion of environmental safety at the Jan. 28 session of the Security Council (of the Russian Federation), it was noted, “about 40 percent of surface sources and 17 percent of underground sources of drinking water do not meet public health standards and norms...”
Russia’s great rivers near major metropolitan areas are suffering the fastest rates of pollution. Because major cities lack treatment facilities, hundreds of millions [sic] of untreated brown water run off into the rivers each year.

Major industrial enterprises that operate on the predatory principle of maximizing profits — even at the price of environmental disaster — play a “leading,” but far from honorable role, among polluters. That is the situation, for example, on Lake Samotlor in Western Siberia, where the international company TNK-BP is extracting oil.

Also, two Russian rivers have been completely contaminated with radiation because they were forced to “serve” defense industries that produce weapons-grade plutonium. The toxic discharges of the mining and chemical facility at Zheleznogorsk (Krasnoyarsk 26) have poisoned the waters of the great “Father Yenisei” for 3,000 kilometers downstream. The contaminated waters of the Techa River, which has suffered for many decades from the operation of the Mayak Production Association (Chelyabinsk Oblast), Russia’s largest nuclear plant, flow first into the Iset and then into the Tobol, Irtysh and Ob rivers. This radioactive chain extends for more than 5,000 kilometers. These figures are no exaggeration. The immense scale of this pollution stems from the fact that the offending industries are at the rivers’ headwaters. This is a tragic “national trait” for Russia.

Low water quality is first and foremost a social problem, for it holds hostage a large part of the population. The government has a policy on water resources management for drinking water sources that is aimed at the environmentally balanced, sustained development of water services, and the protection and remediation of water bodies. But this policy is not formed on its own. Two key factors have influenced its development in Russia.

First are the problems directly inherited from the USSR, Russia’s legacy of its socialist past. They include the radioactive contamination of Russia’s rivers mentioned above; the system of dams on the Volga that disrupts the natural reproduction of the fish population (following the construction of the Volga Hydroelectric Station, the spawning area for Russian osetra sturgeon shrank by 80 percent); the thousands of sunken ships in the Volga’s waters; and obsolete industrial enterprises that do not meet environmental requirements. These are the scourges of the majority of Russia’s water bodies.

Second, the conflicts of “young Russian capitalism.” On one hand, the movement has to deal with its socialist “dowry” and on the other, is striving for economic profit, ignoring its own long-term interests. Russian companies that belong to oligarchs are simply off limits to official criticism when it comes to complying with environmental law. The code of environmentally responsible behavior, conforming to the social norms of democratic countries, does not apply to companies that have been integrated into the system of government support and enjoy (regulatory) immunity.

All this must be taken into account when selecting tools and methods for protecting the environment and influencing polluters. When supporting government environmental initiatives, Russian authorities must show that only the state — by taking clear, principled and steadfast ecological positions — can have any weight in the eyes of the international community of developed countries. This is not just a matter of image and reputation but consequently of the development of harmonious and favorable economic and political relationships between Russia and its partner countries.

Public organizations must point out to the major Russian industrial companies, including those doing business outside Russia, that environmental recklessness is not only unacceptable but also has consequences for their reputation. Waterkeepers Russia intends to contact the business partners of known polluters and, by presenting facts of the polluters’ irresponsible attitude toward the environment (especially water), encourage them to avoid contact with the offenders.

One peculiarity for the monitoring of Russia’s industrial enterprises is that additional inspections of compliance with environmental law can be initiated only at the request of private citizens. By taking advantage of this tool, Waterkeepers Russia intends to draw the attention of government agencies to the fact that polluting enterprises are breaking the law and to enforce environmental laws by appealing to the courts.

Today, the foundation is suing Energiya Aerospace Corp. for wholesale pollution of Dulev Creek with petroleum products in the town of Korolev outside of Moscow. The claim against the company, which regularly violates environmental laws, is 1.7 billion rubles (more than US$ 70 million).

Waterkeepers Russia is launching activities on the Vyatka River and in the near future will launch the programs on the Baikal, Caspian, Baltic, Volga and other major Russian water bodies.
Waterkeepers Russia is also receiving a multitude of appeals from ordinary Russians who are concerned about water pollution. There is a lot of work ahead! w