Baikal: how a great lake is “killed”
Lake Baikal, the "pearl" of Siberia, has always been associated with natural beauty, with pure water. But now environmentalists are sounding the alarm. Baikal's water is rapidly becoming polluted, and at such a pace that it is time to take urgent measures.
At a recent All-Russian Water Congress, Director of the Limnological Institute of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences Andrei Fedotov said that the concentration of toxins in Lake Baikal would soon prevent lake water from meeting sanitary standards. And you can’t drink clean Baikal water in the past right now. Soon it will be impossible to swim.
Not only industrial enterprises, but also tourists are to blame for the deplorable position of the lake. There are no limits to human swine. And this was noticed even by the special representative of the President of Russia on environmental issues, ecology and transport, Sergei Ivanov. It was he who called for limiting the flow of people to the lake, if we, of course, want to preserve Baikal.
Of course, pollution of Lake Baikal is not a new problem. She is at least twenty years old. And a number of factors contribute to the deterioration of the ecological situation on the lake.
The Selenga River originates in neighboring Mongolia, where two thirds of its catchment basin is located. Flowing through almost the whole of Mongolia, the Selenga flows into Baikal and forms more than 50% of the lake’s water inflow.
On the territory of Mongolia, Selenga serves as a giant drain - waste from the residential quarters of the Mongolian capital Ulan Bator is dumped here, sewage from gold mines and one of the largest gold mining and enrichment enterprises in Eurasia, the Erdenet plant, go to Selenga.
Selenga pollution is one of the main problems, because the river flows through the territory of another state, where the Russian authorities are not able to control the environmental situation.
Not so long ago, the Baikal Pulp and Paper Mill closed. But although the enterprise is no longer functioning, problems remain. For half a century of its existence, the pulp and paper mill has managed to pollute the environment quite well. Hazardous industrial waste remained on the shore of Lake Baikal. And environmentalists estimate their number in millions of tons. If some kind of natural disaster occurs, for example, an earthquake, then this waste will rush into the water of Lake Baikal. And then there will be a real environmental disaster.
The plant on bottling of Baikal water and its deliveries to China almost began to work under construction in Kultuk. But by the decision of the Irkutsk court, the construction of this enterprise has been suspended so far and we hope that this project will remain unrealized. Let the Chinese better get water at home, on their territory, rather than touch the lake, which is already in a difficult situation.
A separate issue is housing and communal services of settlements located in the vicinity of the lake. Many of them are deprived of full-fledged treatment facilities, and all household waste somehow gets into the lake. And what can you say to the locals if the authorities did not bother to solve the problem of treatment facilities in such an important place.
But tourists bring no less problems to Lake Baikal. No wonder Sergei Ivanov raised this topic at the All-Russian Water Congress. In recent years, Lake Baikal has become an object of a real tourist pilgrimage, moreover, Russians go to the lake not only and not so much, in percentage terms, as citizens of neighboring China. There are up to 2,5 million people per year on Lake Baikal. And a significant part of them stop either "savages", or in numerous campsites and small hotels, which have never been distinguished by observing the rules of environmental protection.
The tourists are attracted by developers who build countless hotels. Where construction is - there is construction waste, and generally an improper attitude to nature. But the tourists themselves reserve so much household waste that no one is simply able to remove them. Therefore, the question was raised about restricting the flow of people to Lake Baikal.
But, on the other hand, the lake should not be protected from tourists. Baikal needs reliable protection from developers, industrial enterprises, an imperfect drainage system in settlements and, of course, from corrupt officials of all stripes who made this state of affairs possible.
So far, ecologists see possible ways to save Lake Baikal in at least five directions: a ban on the discharge of sewage from residential villages and enterprises into the lake, a ban on the development of the lake’s coast by countless objects of tourism infrastructure, a limitation of “wild” tourist flows, and a solution to the problem of pollution from the Selenga waters (here it will be required work closely with neighboring Mongolia), a ban on the construction of industrial enterprises in the vicinity of Lake Baikal.
At a recent All-Russian Water Congress, Director of the Limnological Institute of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences Andrei Fedotov said that the concentration of toxins in Lake Baikal would soon prevent lake water from meeting sanitary standards. And you can’t drink clean Baikal water in the past right now. Soon it will be impossible to swim.
Not only industrial enterprises, but also tourists are to blame for the deplorable position of the lake. There are no limits to human swine. And this was noticed even by the special representative of the President of Russia on environmental issues, ecology and transport, Sergei Ivanov. It was he who called for limiting the flow of people to the lake, if we, of course, want to preserve Baikal.
Of course, pollution of Lake Baikal is not a new problem. She is at least twenty years old. And a number of factors contribute to the deterioration of the ecological situation on the lake.
The muddy waters of the Selenga
The Selenga River originates in neighboring Mongolia, where two thirds of its catchment basin is located. Flowing through almost the whole of Mongolia, the Selenga flows into Baikal and forms more than 50% of the lake’s water inflow.
On the territory of Mongolia, Selenga serves as a giant drain - waste from the residential quarters of the Mongolian capital Ulan Bator is dumped here, sewage from gold mines and one of the largest gold mining and enrichment enterprises in Eurasia, the Erdenet plant, go to Selenga.
Selenga pollution is one of the main problems, because the river flows through the territory of another state, where the Russian authorities are not able to control the environmental situation.
Plants former and present
Not so long ago, the Baikal Pulp and Paper Mill closed. But although the enterprise is no longer functioning, problems remain. For half a century of its existence, the pulp and paper mill has managed to pollute the environment quite well. Hazardous industrial waste remained on the shore of Lake Baikal. And environmentalists estimate their number in millions of tons. If some kind of natural disaster occurs, for example, an earthquake, then this waste will rush into the water of Lake Baikal. And then there will be a real environmental disaster.
The plant on bottling of Baikal water and its deliveries to China almost began to work under construction in Kultuk. But by the decision of the Irkutsk court, the construction of this enterprise has been suspended so far and we hope that this project will remain unrealized. Let the Chinese better get water at home, on their territory, rather than touch the lake, which is already in a difficult situation.
A separate issue is housing and communal services of settlements located in the vicinity of the lake. Many of them are deprived of full-fledged treatment facilities, and all household waste somehow gets into the lake. And what can you say to the locals if the authorities did not bother to solve the problem of treatment facilities in such an important place.
Where are the tourists, there is dirt
But tourists bring no less problems to Lake Baikal. No wonder Sergei Ivanov raised this topic at the All-Russian Water Congress. In recent years, Lake Baikal has become an object of a real tourist pilgrimage, moreover, Russians go to the lake not only and not so much, in percentage terms, as citizens of neighboring China. There are up to 2,5 million people per year on Lake Baikal. And a significant part of them stop either "savages", or in numerous campsites and small hotels, which have never been distinguished by observing the rules of environmental protection.
The tourists are attracted by developers who build countless hotels. Where construction is - there is construction waste, and generally an improper attitude to nature. But the tourists themselves reserve so much household waste that no one is simply able to remove them. Therefore, the question was raised about restricting the flow of people to Lake Baikal.
How to save the lake
But, on the other hand, the lake should not be protected from tourists. Baikal needs reliable protection from developers, industrial enterprises, an imperfect drainage system in settlements and, of course, from corrupt officials of all stripes who made this state of affairs possible.
So far, ecologists see possible ways to save Lake Baikal in at least five directions: a ban on the discharge of sewage from residential villages and enterprises into the lake, a ban on the development of the lake’s coast by countless objects of tourism infrastructure, a limitation of “wild” tourist flows, and a solution to the problem of pollution from the Selenga waters (here it will be required work closely with neighboring Mongolia), a ban on the construction of industrial enterprises in the vicinity of Lake Baikal.
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