About 100 persons attend rally in defence of Volga-Akhtuba flood plain

According to participants of the rally, which was held on May 27 in the district centre of Srednyaya Akhtuba (the Volgograd Region), the Volga-Akhtuba flood plain faces real danger. In total, the action was attended by about 100 persons.

According to Natalia Lopantseva, the coordinator of the UN project "Conservation of biodiversity of wetlands of Lower Volga", who was also attended the action, the rally represents an extreme measure, which was caused by indifference of the local authorities.

"Our children and grandchildren will also wish to see here blossoming lotus flowers and pink pelicans, steppe wildcats and white-tailed eagles. However, all this will be impossible, if we fail to work together with the government institutions of the region and with the presidential administration. We are ready to send our demands to Vladimir Putin again, and we will ask him to provide sufficient amount of federal resources for the conservation of the flood plain," said Natalia Lopantseva.

The main purpose of the recent rally is to protect the ecological environment of the natural park of the Volga-Akhtuba flood plain. "At present, together with the representative of the UN, we conduct negotiations that part of the flood plain should be registered as the National natural area or park," said Mikhail Kolbyashkin, the coordinator of the flood plain protection project.

Evgeny Scherbakov, a participant of the rally, believes that the main fault of the drying of the floodplain lies in the officials, who "let to conduct construction works in places, where no such works should be carried out."

The main demands, made by the participants of the rally, are to terminate construction works in the flood plain and in the farmland areas, to clean water passages of dirt, to stop deforestation, to increase water discharge through the Volga Hydroelectric Power Plant up to 29,000 cubic meters for 15 days, and to ban storage of solid domestic waste near the flood plain, the "Vysota 102.0" (Height 102.0) reports.

"However, the worst terrific thing is that they can soon organize a chemical waste landfill here," noted Mikhail Kolbyashkin. He continued: "We've got information that large industrial plants of Volgograd and the Volga 'Orgsintez', the aluminium plant, the "Khimprom" and other plants will bring their waste to the Srednyaya Akhtuba District. And, if they really start to bring their chemical waste to the flood plain, people will come out not to rallies, but to real uprisings."

During the rally, Sergey Mazanov, one of the participants of the rally, the activist of the Volgograd Branch of the CPRF (the Communist Party of the Russian Federation), and his associate unrolled a banner with the inscription "For Fair Elections". A police officer suppressed their attempt, and, as a result, the banner was folded. Sergey Mazanov was brought to the building of the ROVD (District Interior Division) for a conversation. Sergey Mazanov himself wrote about that in his blog. According to the activist, at present, he is released.