FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY - Article 19

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ARTICLE 19GLOBAL CAMPAIGN FOR FREE EXPRESSIONIAEA’s figures were judged by Greenpeace to be a ‘gross underestimation’, as well as anoversimplification of the current situation. 84The importance of information was also recognised by the Parliamentary Assembly of theCouncil of Europe (PACE). In its Resolution 1127, ‘On the Health Effects of the Chornobyl NuclearAccident’, it calls on Council of Europe member States and international institutions to, among otherthings, inform people ‘of the health effects of accidental and natural radiation’ and ‘of the health andenvironmental problems of the various systems of energy production’. 85In a national report 10 years after the catastrophe, the Ukrainian government said the greatestdamage of Chornobyl was the moratorium on nuclear power plants that was imposed after theaccident. 86&,& 2!The Kyiv oblast lies at the margins of the zone affected by the radioactive pollution from theChornobyl reactor. There is still some radioactive material present in the environment, principallycaesium-137 – the main radioactive element released – and strontium-90. Some wild foods such asberries and mushrooms continue to show elevated caesium-137 levels and may still be contaminated.Kyiv is also affected by waste pollution, gas emissions (due to heavy traffic), ineffective sewagesystems and poor quality drinking water.Plans to develop the green areas of Kyiv caused tension between the city authorities andenvironmentalists. Even though the environmental authorities have been told to develop a programmeto preserve these areas, environmentalists believe that these measures relate only to 3% of the landalong the Dnipro riverbank and will not prevent building elsewhere on the riverside. 87More than 400 hectares of green space were lost in Kyiv between 2000 and 2007, and treescontinue to be cut down. 88 Even the head of Kyiv City Council’s Ecological Commission, AnatoliiKovalenko, has not been told why this has happened, although the Commission reportedly ‘assumes’that the reason is lack of funding to plant new trees and poor watering techniques. 89 Mayor LeonidChernovetsky has blamed his predecessors, and says he has reversed a number of decisions relating to84 Greenpeace, ‘Chernobyl Toll Grossly Underestimated’, see note 62.85 Resolution 1127, June 1997,http://assembly.coe.int/Main.asp?link=/Documents/AdoptedText/ta97/ERES1127.htm86 Interview with Volodymyr Usachenko, see note 54.87 ‘Mayor ruins Kyiv parks’, Obzor, 16 March 2007.88 L Bakka, ‘Green Catastrophe: Kyiv Losing 400 Hectares of Green Spaces because of Imperfect Legislation’,Den’, 24 July 2007, p.589 Ibid.For Internal Use Only. Is Post-Chornobyl Ukraine Ready for Access to Environmental Information?ARTICLE 19, London, 2007
ARTICLE 19GLOBAL CAMPAIGN FOR FREE EXPRESSIONnew construction works. Despite this, green areas continue to decrease. According to AnatoliiKovalenko, 350 hectares of parks and squares were acquired by businesses in the first half of 2007without prior agreement with the Ecological Commission. Construction issues are normally resolvedin a non-transparent manner by Mayor Chernovetsky and his entourage.Land in Kyiv is expensive and a lucrative business. Ukraine does not have active legislation toprotect green spaces, and permission to cut trees down is easily obtained by paying a small sum or bydeclaring the trees rotten. 90 Trees in the city are also withering because of the harmful emissions fromcars and the salt with which roads are abundantly sprinkled in winter.&,3 + The Donetsk oblast, where 20% of Ukraine’s industrial capacity is concentrated, is one of the mostpolluted regions in the country. This stems from its geographic location, production volumes andhistory.The oblast’s subsoil is rich in natural resources and previously supplied raw materials acrossthe USSR. Rapid industrial growth during the Soviet period triggered the swift expansion of towns,resulting in a high population density in the oblast. Donetsk constitutes 4.4% of Ukraine’s territory butis home to 4,747 million people or 10% of Ukraine’s population. 91 The oblast is divided into 18districts and 49 cities, with over 2,000 major industrial enterprises, or 3.8 per 100 sq km. The oblasthas 800 large facilities in the fuel and energy sector, coal-mining, metallurgy, chemicals, production ofconstruction materials, heavy machine-building for mining and transportation, as well as smallerindustrial sites. This has led the Academy of Science in Kyiv to describe the oblast as ‘overindustrialised’.The area is criss-crossed with pipelines pumping oil, gas, liquid ammonia and otherproducts under high pressure. This concentration of production and urban populations, coupled withhighly intensive agriculture, has placed an enormous burden on the biosphere. Additional problems arethe old machinery and lack of management capacity. Much of the local economy consists of energyconsumingindustries that are technologically inefficient and greatly damaging to the environment.The Donetsk oblast generates 37% of Ukraine’s industrial waste. 92 Much of the waste isreleased into the atmosphere. Of the liquid waste, at least half is disposed of untreated or under-treatedinto surface waters. Local industries damage natural resources six times faster than elsewhere inUkraine, annually discharging nearly 1.7 million tonnes of pollutants. The volume of waste (including90 Ibid.91 All-Ukrainian Project, ‘The Environment and Natural Wealth of Ukraine’, Issue 2, Novy Svit Publishers,Kyiv, 2005, p.33 (in Ukrainian).92 ‘President Provel Soveshchanie s aktivnom Donetskoj oblasti’, 17 January 2007, website of the UkrainianPresident (in Russian), http://www.president.gov.ua/ru/news/data/1_13129.html.For Internal Use Only. Is Post-Chornobyl Ukraine Ready for Access to Environmental Information?ARTICLE 19, London, 2007"
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