Agricultural enterprises in the Vitebsk region violate environmental legislation more often than other economic entities

May 14, Vitebsk / Olga Bogacheva - BELTA /. Agricultural enterprises of the Vitebsk region violate environmental legislation more often than other economic entities in the region. This opinion was expressed to a BELTA correspondent by Valentina Khodosevich, Senior Assistant Prosecutor of the Vitebsk Region for Supervision of Environmental Legislation Enforcement, based on the results of an inspection of compliance with legislation on prohibitions and restrictions of economic and other activities in water protection zones and coastal strips of water bodies. According to Valentina Khodosevich, the most common and significant violations of environmental legislation in water protection zones and coastal strips of reservoirs are committed by agro-industrial complex enterprises that have livestock farms and complexes. "Since 2009, the regional prosecutor's office has repeatedly drawn the attention of the Vitebsk Regional Executive Committee to this fact. To solve this problem, in November last year, the chairman of the regional executive committee approved a Plan of measures to improve the ecological state of the region's water bodies for 2011-2015, which provides for the relocation of 90 agricultural facilities outside the water protection zones," said Valentina Khodosevich. "The inspection showed that the situation in this regard has not significantly improved for the better yet," she stated. Thus, violations of environmental legislation were established in the Sennensky district on the farms of OJSC "Sennensky Rayagropromservice", "Sinegorskoye", "Ulyanovichi" and "Belaya Lipa". Some agricultural enterprises in the Lioznensky district operate unsafely for the environment. For example, at a farm in the village of Rublevo, since 2010, no measures have been taken to relocate the livestock grazing area, located on the border of the water protection zone and the coastal strip of the Chernitsa River, which poses a real threat of pollution of this water body. In the Braslavsky district, at a livestock complex for 5,000 heads in the village of Laybuny (OJSC "Agrovidzy"), due to the lack of control over the discharge of liquid organic fractions through a pipeline located in the water protection zone of the Maruga River, they spread over the territory adjacent to the field, polluting a section of land of the Braslav Lakes National Park. Violations of the regime of maintenance of water protection zones and coastal strips were also established in the Rossony, Verkhnedvinsk, Gorodok, Dubrovno, Miory, Orsha, Polotsk, Tolochin, Sharkovshchina, Beshenkovichi, Vitebsk, Glubokoye, Dokshitsy, Ushachi and Chashniki districts. Special attention was paid during the inspection to the legality of construction, reconstruction and operation of real estate within water protection zones and coastal strips. In this case, violations were detected in the coastal strips in the Orsha, Ushachi, Gorodok, Polotsk, and Braslav districts. Violations consisting of unauthorized landfills of household waste were also established in the water protection zone and coastal strip of the Western Dvina River in Vitebsk. In Polotsk, the fact of improper operation of treatment facilities by the "Prommashremont" plant, located in the water protection zone of the Polota River, was revealed. In this regard, an instruction was sent to the Republican Center for Analytical Control in the Field of Environmental Protection to collect and analyze water samples. In order to eliminate the violations, prosecutors prepared 77 response acts, including 19 submissions and 58 orders. To resolve the issue of bringing the perpetrators to administrative responsibility, instructions were sent to the controlling environmental authorities to prepare administrative cases against 100 persons. The results of the inspection of compliance with legislation on prohibitions and restrictions of economic and other activities in water protection zones and coastal strips of water bodies were considered at a meeting of the collegium of the regional prosecutor's office. In addition, a submission was prepared for the Vitebsk Regional Executive Committee, which raised the issue of bringing to disciplinary responsibility officials of district executive committees and the Committee for Agriculture and Food of the Regional Executive Committee, who failed to ensure proper control over the cleanup of farms and other facilities of agro-industrial complex enterprises, which led to the pollution of water resources or created a real threat of their pollution. -0-