Pollution of the Desna and Seim rivers: Dirt has reached Kyiv region — what you need to know

In the last few weeks, after the sewage got into the Diet, there were threatening reports about the consequences for Kyiv, since 60% of the drinking water of Kyiv residents is obtained from Desna after purification.

BBC Ukraine found out from state authorities and asked ecologists whether there is anything to fear for the people of Kyiv now and what has happened over the past few weeks.

Where does the dirt in the Seimas come from?

A few weeks ago, when dirt stains and the death of fish were seen in the Diet of Sumy Oblast, there were speculations that sewage was being dumped on the territory of the Kursk Oblast of the Russian Federation, where the river also flows.

"We assume that it was a discharge from a sugar factory in the Kursk region. We make this conclusion after analyzing space images. Black polluted water went out. (…) No chemical, poisonous compounds were found in it, only organic matter," said Ihor Zubovych, Acting Head of the State Environmental Inspection of Ukraine.

According to him, experts discovered unknown organic compounds that absorbed oxygen in the water, and this caused the mass death of fish.

There is another version, it is followed by the Kyiv Ecological and Cultural Center: organic dirt could get into the waters of the Sejm from an enterprise in the village of Tyotkino in Kurshchyna, where leather is processed.

Eyewitnesses tell how the polluted Sejm looked.

"There was almost no smell until I started touching the bottom - the stench immediately left, as if from a toilet. Many crayfish corpses, dry fish here and there, many shells on the shore. And most importantly, there is green slime everywhere, which looks like algae at first glance. But it's not them. Inside them is a black viscous liquid, like molten resin. The bottom turns black when you touch it," Natalia Pavlenko-Voskresenska wrote on Facebook.

In total, more than 12 tons of dead fish were collected and buried in the Diet of Sumy region, another eight tons were collected and buried in Desna in Chernihiv region.

Pollution of the Desna River near Chernigov

Acting Mayor of Chernihiv Oleksandr Lomako said that the water in Desna near Chernihiv had darkened, fish were dying, and an unpleasant smell could be felt in some places near the river.

At the same time, the head of the city reminded that Chernihiv, like Sumyshchyna, does not consume water from rivers, because it is taken from artesian wells.

Therefore, there is no threat to the life and health of the citizens, Oleksandr Lomako believes. At the same time, there is a ban on fishing and swimming in Desna in the region.

In order to stop the death of fish and other biological resources, they began to saturate the water here with oxygen.

For this, six compressors were installed, hoses were pulled into the water, and aeration is carried out around the clock.

"According to the results of visual observation, a decrease in the fatigue of biological resources was recorded", - say the eco-inspectors of the Chernihiv region.

The regional state co-inspection and the Ministry of Environmental Protection assured last week that the pollution is moving more slowly towards Kyiv.

Volodymyr Boreyko, head of the Kyiv Ecological and Cultural Center, says that natural aeration also occurs in the Desna, as this river is different from the Seim. The gums are fuller, faster, colder, have eddies, and that is why the water is saturated with oxygen.

"Oxygen went there not thanks to the ministry and officials, but primarily thanks to nature," he said in an interview with the Ukrainian Air Force.

Water quality in Kyiv

Today, pollution has reached the villages of Litka and Rozhna of the Brovar district, near Kyiv.

But its main concentration is between the villages of Oster and Maksym of Chernihiv region. Local residents write on social networks that Desna dies in those places.

Ihor Hopchak, the deputy head of the State Water Resources Agency, says that experts have already begun to record the first signs of a change in the color of the water and the level of turbidity in Desna in the Kyiv region. But, he emphasizes, there is no need to worry about the quality of drinking water in the capital.

Kyivvodokanal supplies water to Kyiv residents from three sources: 10% - from artesian wells, 30% - from the Dnipro, and the most 60% - from the Desna. That is why messages about threats to the greater part of Kyiv spread in social networks in the event that the mud along the Desna river approaches the Kyiv region.

There were calls to stock up on drinking water from supermarkets and pumps. However, Kyivvodokanal reassures and says that the situation is under control and all indicators of drinking water are normal.

"Kyivvodokanal is fully equipped with reagents for water disinfection. All processes of water treatment are carried out in the established order, all water supply facilities work in regular mode", - experts of Kyiv Water Canal emphasize.

Is natural water purification possible?

Volodymyr Boreyko from the Kyiv Ecological and Cultural Center believes that, perhaps, there will be no need for special water disinfection measures. This is explained by the hundreds of kilometers of the Desna River to Kyiv.

"These are kilometers of natural aeration. If it works, this stain of organic dirt will be "eaten" in the river, its concentration will be significantly reduced," the ecologist explains.

This is also said by hydrologist Viktor Vishnevskyi. According to him, the volume of polluted water compared to the waters of the Desna is small - a few thousand cubic meters, while the Desna carries billions of cubic meters per year.

The stain was moving slowly, it was dissolving, which is why closer to Kyiv, the effects of pollution have significantly decreased.

Experts also remind that Kyiv residents receive water not only from Desna, but the water supply system is unified and "ringed", therefore, if necessary, Kyivvodokanal can redistribute water intake, reducing its intake from Desna.