Social media users found the government's involvement in cleaning the beaches of Tuapse villages insufficient.
Volunteers are forced to clean up the aftermath of the oil spill on beaches far from the center of Tuapse on their own in the absence of government assistance, social media users reported.
As reported by the "Caucasian Knot," volunteers cleaning up beach areas far from the city center stated that they are short-handed and short-staffed. Volunteers collecting oil from the coast of Tuapse and the surrounding area posted footage of their work on social media and reported a lack of assistance from the authorities. Liquid petroleum products are absorbed under the pebbles and are more difficult to collect than the thick fuel oil in Anapa, a participant in the work noted.
A video from the beach in the village of Tyumensky, where volunteers are cleaning the beach, was published today by the Telegram channel "My Tuapse." "Volunteers are manually loading oil-contaminated rocks into bags. The sea is visually clean and clear. The shore is polluted. There are about 40 people working, maybe more. They came from all over, there's even a girl from Kamchatka," reads the description of the video, which shows volunteers, often women, attempting to clean rocks on the shore.
This post has garnered 12 comments.
"Volunteers are saving the season for hotels. Volunteers are saving animals, the environment, etc. But where are the jobs and funding for those being rescued?" - asked Sergio.
"Where is the financial assistance, special equipment, gear, and hot food? Everything fell on ordinary people," noted Clovis Clovis.
"The last thing the volunteers think about is the season or someone's hotels," countered Ksenia.
This same video on the Instagram public "My Tuapse" garnered 17 comments.
"These are local guys. And they buy everything for their work themselves - suits, boots, food, shovels," wrote yana45.13.
"And why don't the Tuapse city authorities help?" asked laptev272.
"The problem is, these big rocks, remove the small ones and that's it, but you can't move the cobblestones," noted elena_photo_tyapse
Some users noted that some polluted beaches remain uncleaned.
"Beyond the bend of Wild Beach and on Kadosh, no one was found to clean up," commented user ol.fedos.
Ecologist and director of environmental programs for the Green Patrol organization Roman Pukalov called on authorities to "pay attention to the local discharge near Vesna station," where, according to him, there is a large oil spill.
The fire caused by the drone strike was the fourth in Tuapse since 16 April
The fire at the oil refinery following the drone attack in Tuapse is the fourth in the past two weeks. The previous one occurred on April 28, when residents were evacuated from the area adjacent to the refinery; the governor of the Krasnodar Territory announced the evacuation of about 70 people. The smell of burning after the third fire due to a drone strike since mid-April can be felt outside of Tuapse, according to local residents. Some of them left the city, fearing the health risks of combustion products. On the morning of April 30, authorities reported that the fire at the refinery had been extinguished.
On the night of April 20, following a drone attack, a fire broke out at the oil terminal in the port of Tuapse, which was extinguished only on April 24. During this fire, an "oil rain" fell in the city. The fire at the marine terminal poses a risk of release combustion products that are carcinogenic and toxic. "Oil rain" reduced the level of harmful substances in the air, but led to soil pollution, environmentalists emphasized.
On the night of April 16, a 14-year-old girl and an adult girl were killed and seven others were injured in a drone attack in Tuapse. Sixty residential buildings and three public facilities were damaged, and five private homes were completely destroyed. A fire also broke out at the seaport; it was extinguished on April 19. Tuapse residents reported that after the attack, "the entire sky was covered in smoke," and the smell of burning was felt throughout the city throughout the day.
On April 24, after booms broke due to rising water levels in the Tuapse River, an oil spill occurred into the Black Sea. Authorities declared the spill "local," but the oil spread to nearby villages. Fuel oil spread over a large area, and local residents told the "Caucasian Knot" on April 26 that it is being cleaned up mainly by volunteers.
As a reminder, lang="ru-RU">Tuapse resident Evgeniya left the city on April 28th because she believes the situation there is dangerous for children's health.
"My apartment was destroyed after a drone attack on November 25th last year. I moved to another, quieter area, but after the latest attack, I decided to move further away. I have been renting an apartment for five months at my own expense. I was not provided with temporary housing. We appealed to the authorities for help, but they turned a deaf ear," she told a "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.
Materials on the consequences of the fuel oil spills in the Kerch Strait and Tuapse have been collected by "Caucasian Knot" on the page "Eco-disaster in Kuban." Data on the scale of coastal pollution has been collected by "Caucasian Knot" in the reference material "Fuel oil spill in the Kerch Strait".
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