The new environmental program of Mariupol was approved

On September 25, at the next session of the Mariupol City Council, the deputies adopted the "Program for the Protection and Health of the Environment of Mariupol for the period from 2012 to 2020", which provides for reducing the emissions of pollutants into the atmosphere by 45% and a decrease in water pollution by 40%.

High indicators are expected to be obtained as a result of technical modernization and converting of the metallurgical plants of the city - the Ilyich and Azovstal plant, which are part of the Metinvest group. Other city enterprises are affected in the program, which, for example, the sale of reinforced concrete , transport and passenger transportation.

Before approving the new program, the report of the First Deputy Chairman of the City Council Gennady Mitrofanov was heard on the implementation of the previous program, developed in 2005 for the period from 2006 to 2011.

Mr. Mitrofanov reported about the completed environmental measures, which cost the city more than 560 million UAH and allowed, in his opinion, to reduce the emissions of harmful substances into the atmosphere of Mariupol by 80 thousand tons per year.

The new environmental program will cost 6.3 billion UAH, of which Metinvest will pay UAH 5 billion, UAH 400 million will go from the state budget and 250 million UAH from the city.

The chairman of the Public Council of Environmental Safety at the Mariupol City Council Alexei Kapustin, said in his speech the results of the public hearings of the project of the new environmental program. So it was stated that Mariupol citizens submitted 1,100 proposals for improving the ecology of the city and the purity of water and air.

Today's indicators of air purity within the city are very far from European indicators, the professor of Brandenburg Technical University Michael Schmidt presented at the session stated. Under his leadership, German experts developed the Pure Air for Mariupol program.

“Preliminary studies of river water and soil in Mariupol showed a very high content of heavy metals and harmful organic substances. But with all this, if the environmental improvement program for 2012-2020 will be fulfilled, the city will be able to actually achieve by emissions into the atmosphere of European standards, ”the professor said.