Water consumption in the Vitebsk region has decreased by almost 17% over the past 5 years

April 3, Vitebsk / Sergei Kochetov - BELTA /. Water consumption from surface and underground sources in the Vitebsk region has decreased by 40.3 million cubic meters, or almost 17%, over the past 5 years compared to the 2004 level, the department of water resources of the regional committee for natural resources and environmental protection informed a BELTA correspondent. In 2008, about 200 million cubic meters of water were used from the region's natural water bodies for various purposes, meaning that the water resources saved over 5 years amounted to one-fifth of the region's annual demand, specialists noted. The savings were mainly achieved through the ongoing work on the rational use of natural resources and the equipping of water supply sources with metering devices. Currently, more than 2.8 thousand active sources are equipped with water metering devices, or 82.3% of their total number, including almost 1.7 thousand devices installed in 2008. At the same time, the lowest coverage with metering devices for water supply sources is observed at enterprises of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food, which need to install more than 500 metering devices (over 90% of the total number required for installation). During the inspection of compliance with the procedure for primary accounting of water use, environmental protection agency specialists issued more than 1.3 thousand orders to eliminate identified violations in 2008, 189 officials were held accountable, and the amount of fines amounted to over Br15.6 million. -0-