"Environmental Patrol of Stavropolye" will hold a picket in protection of natural resources

On January, 29, a picket of non-governmental organization "Environmental Patrol of Stavropolye" will be held in 200th Anniversary square in order to draw public attention to the problems of protection of natural resources, i.e. the springs and forests. The action will last from 13 till 15 o'clock and, according the organizers' preliminary estimation, will gather no less than three hundred people.

Head of "Environmental Patrol of Stavropolye" Andrey Yevdokimov explained to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that the main goal of the picket was to draw attention of the community and authorities to system violations in the sphere of nature management. Yevdokimov considers that one of the most actual problems is destruction of the springs in the biggest forests of the city, i.e. Taman and Mamay forests.

According to "Environmental Patrol's" estimation, the number of watercourses reduced by three times, i.e. from 154 to 46, during the past three years (the period of their monitoring by the organization). The rest ones were destroyed, mainly for account of their incidental inclusion into so-called "debris barriers" (illegal dumps).

Besides, even out of those remaining forest springs only 32 are available, the rest are located in the territory of private building or have already been included into drains (water is pumped out of them), Yevdokimov explained.

The ecologist says that according to the Water Code of the Russian Federation in force, springs fall into the category of "surface waters" and therefore are not objects of mandatory environmental control, they can just be under monitoring.

Elena Savchenko, Senior expert of Department of water consumption and protection of water resources and environment of Stavropol region, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that not a single municipal or regional state body controlled the springs not used for water supply at the moment.

According to Yevdokimov, "Environmental Patrol of Stavropolye" is going to initiate adjustment of the Water Code of Russia upon the results of the picket of January, 29. The amendments should stipulate increasing responsibility of nature protection state institutions, primarily concerning springs and small rivers, including toughening vindictive damages for discharge of raw sewage into natural watercourses.

Yevdokimov says that another problem which draws attention of the participants of the picket of January, 29, will be regular deforestation within the city boundaries. In particular, the "Caucasian Knot" earlier reported that the question of transfer of part of "Russian Forest" reserve to the ownership of some private persons was a burning issue.

On the New Year's eve the Ministry of Nature Protection of Stavropol region submitted a number of lawsuits to court demanding repeal of privatization of land parcels in "Russian Forest". Some of the cases have already been dismissed. However, representatives of the Ministry assured that they were going to appeal against the judgments on all the 50 land parcels in order to be able to appeal to the Supreme Court of Russia after consideration of the cases in the regional instance.