Dangerous pesticides hidden in Ukrainian villages
Standup: “According to the United Nations, Ukraine is a European leader in terms of using dangerous agricultural chemicals. The concentration of toxic elements on our fields is more than 20 tons. Poland is in second place (15000 tons) and in third place is Macedonia (10000). This time, Zone of Special Attention will focus on the conditions on keeping and utilization of pesticides, which have been here since the times of the Soviet Union.”
The amount of pesticides in Ukraine that already cannot be used can be compared to the amount of expired pesticides collected from all African cultures together.Of the pesticides that should be disposed of, are chemicals fighting weeds and plant diseases. These chemicals have remained there since the time when Soviet kolkhozs (collective farms) fell apart decades ago.Even though they are not in official use, the pesticides themselves continue damaging and poison not only weeds but people too. The fact has been confirmed by biological engineers and ecologists. In the 80s, the Ministry of Health Care of the USSR, together with the sanitary institute and agricultural-chemical committee made a decision to ban the use of some pesticides for farming. Many of the chemicals do not belong to anybody anymore because of the numerous reorganizations and constant changes in the ownership of collective. Therefore, officially the chemicals started to become the responsibility of the local authorities.Inna Antyufeyeva – agricultural chemist-toxicologist of the “Oblgosplodorodie” Center“If the pesticides that are being kept incorrectly get into the soil and therefore into underground water, it gets into plants and through them into the human body. This is how a person can be poisoned.The poison can get into the soil with water or by being spread by the wind. It has been proven that even in small doses pesticides can damage the normal biological functions of the human body and other things in the environment. They cause problems with cancer, damage to the central and peripheral nerve systems, reproduction problems, and changes in the immune system. Some of these toxins lead to mutations in future generations. If a person eats a poisoned product, very dangerous compounds are formed in his body. Those toxic combinations are dangerous to health – warns Makiyivka gastroenterologist Natalya Kravtsova.Natalya Kravtsova – city gastroenterologist“I had a patient whose work was connected to using chemicals- fertilizers. She had acute viral hepatitis. She got an official disability and was not allowed to continue working with chemicals, but she disobeyed and later died.”According to the Ministry of Environmental Protection of Ukraine, the first inventory of pesticides inherited from the Soviet Union was conducted in 2002. The last one took place three years ago. According to the data, there were 864 tons of chemicals in Donetsk region, out of which 11 tons were in Makiyivka. Last year, according to a decision by the city council, 80 ths hryvnyas was allocated to transport and utilize the pesticides. As a result, 2652 kilograms of pesticides were taken away.Cut-inDuring the last five years, TV Union has been regularly airing programming on the condition of pesticide storage that previously belonged to the collective farm enterprise Krinichanskiy. These videos were shot three years ago. Anybody willing to steal pesticides could gain entrance to the storage facility. People that knew of the danger of the chemicals would never take anything from here. However, people that are careless would be tempted by the construction materials of the facility without even suspecting that everything has absorbed chemicals.During the Soviet Union, this territory belonged to collective farm enterprise Krinichanskiy. For the convenience of using the storage, it was placed in the middle of the fields. Now, the surrounding land belongs to the private company Mria. Six-hundred forty kilograms of pesticides were taken from here last year and in the meantime, the storage facility was looted by people brick by brick. Right now, there are 244 kilograms of pesticides in these ruins. The remaining amount of toxins should be liquidated this year by the local authorities. For more than ten years, the fields surrounding the storage facility have not been planted. However, this year, the field is in active use. According to sanitary service doctors, it is not prohibited to grow plants here. But local citizens question the quality of the harvest here.Aleksandr Davydenko – Resident of Krinichnaya settlement“Nearby, this is a wheat field. So what will happen next? The soil is absorbing chlorides, ammonias and nitrates. And then will get ‘healthy bread’?”Are the fields poisoned? Has the environment been harmed? The city sanitary station often leaves these questions unanswered; only referring to the results of research done two years ago. According to them, there was no danger at that time. Even now, uncovered and loose on the ground there are torn plastic bags filled with chemical powders. Therefore, reporters from the Zone of Special Attention program addressed the city sanitary-epidemiological station with a request to run a lab test on the amount of pesticides in the soil around the storage facility from the collective farm enterprise Krinichanskiy. In parallel, an independent, control test will be conducted by workers from the regional sanitary-epidemiological station.Aleksandra Pidorenko – Head of the toxicology and sanitary department of the Donetsk sanitary-epidemiological station“The most dangerous are these ditches. Who dug them? It must have been people that were pulling out construction materials from the foundation. These are the most dangerous ones because we do not have data on where the underground water is. So if these chemicals get into the underground water, it is dangerous because with water it can go to any water resource.”The lab workers at the sanitary-epidemiological station are taking five soil samples – one at the middle of the storage and the other four outside of the storage facility in a square pattern – from the north, south, west and east. The test results will be ready in ten days and if the pesticides are dangerous to the neighboring environment, then it will be apparent from the tests. Cut-inViktor Grigoryev has been the director of the collective farm enterprise Krinichanskiy from 1989 to the time of its dissolution. He remembers how the local authorities would force the sovkhoz to purchase more chemicals than was necessary for the fields.Viktor Grigoryev – Agricultural scientist“The agricultural development department of the Krinichanskiy collective farm at that time had to choose a different pesticide for each crop. Therefore, it reflected the quality and quantity of purchased pesticides.”Right now Viktor Ksenofonovich Grigoryev is a private entrepreneur. He has a farm of 140 hectares. He does not use chemicals at all while farming. He uses his own methods to obtain an ecologically pure harvest.Viktor Grigoryev – Agricultural scientist“I use firstly the mechanical method, secondly – biological and thirdly – crop rotation.”After the collective farm enterprise Krinichanskiy’s land was divided, the chemical storage belonged to nobody, says Viktor Grigoryev. And management was freed of responsibility from utilizing the chemicals.Cut-inToday on the territory of Makiyivka there are about 8 tons of chemicals. The same number was presented by the local sanitary epidemiological station and the ecology department of the city council. The TV crew referred to them for a map of dangerous chemical hotspots. The ecologists went with the reports to take a look at the condition of the pesticides.Gornyatskiy District, Village Ugolshchik. There are more than five tons of chemicals preserved here.Standup: “This is one more storage facility for expired agricultural pesticides that are prohibited from being used. According to professionals, they present a danger to the environment as well as to the population’s health. Because of improper storage conditions, agricultural chemicals got mixed up and are no longer marked. The broken walls of the facility prove that looters have been here.The smell around the facility is very peculiar – in just a couple minutes there, we felt headaches and a sweet taste in our mouths. The bunker should have been guarded so nobody would get in just as easily as we did, without any obstacles. Upon the ecologist’s supposition, looters can use the toxins as chemical weapons or they might use the chemicals by repackaging them under modern brand names to resell them in local markets, or – which is even worse – use them on their own farmland.Our next stop – Village Gruzsko-Zoryanka. Here there is about one ton of pesticides and other chemicals. The company Luch Ltd., on whose territory the chemicals are being preserved, is watching and guarding them. The building is locked.Aleksandr Babkov – Luch Ltd. guard“I work for the company Luch. I am watching this storage facility. The chemicals are not being stolen. The only thing that happened is that the grates have been taken from some of the windows.”Soviet District, Village Nizhnyaya Krynka. Not far from the banks of the river Nizhnyaya Krynka, there is a building that stores more than a ton of poisons. City authorities have visited this place on an inspection visit last spring.Vladimir Novosad – Chief specialist of the ecology department of Makiyivka City Council“During that inspection, the building was in the same condition. The door was welded shut, but as it appears now, it had been penetrated since a corner of the metal door was bent.”The storage facility is being destroyed by looters brick by brick.Aleksandr Shevchenko – Head of the Donetsk regional organization ‘Green Party’“The bricks and blocks of the facility are prepared to be carried away. People that pick up that poisonous stuff and will later reuse them for the foundation of their houses or resell them to others. The pesticides, being absorbed by stoned for decades will be poisoning people.The remnants of pesticides from the village Krinichnaya in Soviet region will be taken away by local authorities this year.Elena Globa – Head of municipal improvement department from Makiyivka Housing and Community Services“We conducted a tender and an agreement has been signed with the company Radon. The work will be done in Krinichnaya, Gruzsko-Zoryanka and Nizhnyaya Krynka. We hope to utilize 1750 kilograms.”About 80 ths hryvnyas will be allocated from the local budget for this purpose.Anatoliy Tkachenko – Deputy city mayor“We will consider allocating incoming budget money for ecological reasons. In the next half year, we will get back to this problem if the utilization goes well. It is quite possible that we will increase funding for this purpose and will regularly plan for such expenses in the future.”If city authorities continue to take out chemicals from the city with the same speed, in two years there would not be anything left. And if community authorities received help from regional authorities, the problem would have been resolved even much faster, says Anatoliy Tkachenko. The regional ecology and natural resources department has the response to this comment.Sergiy Tretyakov – Head of the state department of ecology and natural resources in Donetsk region“Local authorities should not be offended that some of them do not get money from us. Ecology receives only 10% of the regional budget so if local management really cares about resolve problems on their territories; they can find financial support for it themselves.”There is an active program Protection of the Environment and the regional budget allocated about a million hryvnyas to take away and utilize agricultural chemicals last year. However, by the end of 2006, the tender for this work had not been realized and this year this money was reallocated.Sergiy Tretyakov – Head of the state department of ecology and natural resources in Donetsk region“This year, such large storage facilities as in Volnovakhe will be utilized for sure. After this one, we will work to take care of the biggest hotspots.”In other words, nobody from the regional authorities is going to help Makiyivka take care of the problem.Cut-inThe results from the city and regional sanitary-epidemiological stations from the lab tests on the remnants of pesticides in the soul around the storage facility in collective farm enterprise Krinichanskiy were released. Aleksandra Pidorenko – Head of the toxicology and sanitary department of the Donetsk sanitary-epidemiological station“We tested twelve perimeters, - of chlor-, mercury-, phosphorus-origin ones. We tested the pesticides that were used on this territory and pesticides used in the years between 1986 and 1992. According to results from the lab test, there was no remaining amount of pesticides in the soil.”However, it would be very obvious to state that the pesticide storage in Krinichnaya is safe for the environment, say the doctors from the regional sanitary-epidemiological station. According to them, the problem is that there is no way to conduct a test on one soil sample for all indicators. Moreover, pesticides might have changed their structure after staying there for more than 10 years, and we do not have a means or methodology to test that.The Makiyivka city sanitary-epidemiological station doctors also did not detect remnants of pesticides in their soil samples.Lyudmila Gubareva – Head of the agricultural toxicology and hygiene of the Makiyivka sanitary-epidemiological station“It doesn’t mean that these storage facilities are not dangerous to the population. The facilities might later pollute the soil since the asphalt around is cracked.”Cut-inThere is only one company, Elga, in Ukraine that can neutralize outdated and old pesticides and agricultural chemicals. It is located in the city Shostka in Sumy region. Three years ago the Donetsk specialized company of the Ukrainian joint group Radon received a license to deal with chemicals. Among their responsibilities is to collect and transport toxic powders to Elga. Viktor Fateyev – Director of the Donetsk specialized company of Ukrainian jount group Radon.“The utilization of one ton of chemicals in Shostka costs 12,840 hryvnyas. If to add our expenses to that – the crew’s arrival to the field, delivery of containers, loading of containers, transportation of containers to Shostka, and clothes decontamination – it all comes to 25 ths hryvnyas per ton.”Viktor Fateyev thinks that there is no way to make this process cheaper. Just one bucket to transport 80 kilograms of chemicals costs 200 hryvnyas. The regional ‘Green Party’ organization, which has dealt with this problem for a long time, has a different opinion.Aleksandr Shevchenko – Head of the Donetsk regional organization ‘Green Party’“Everybody tries to get away from the problem or make a lot of money from it. Ecological questions always involve work that is hard to calculate and break down the services by prices. Therefore, there are many ways to make more profit from it.In order to avoid misunderstandings, we first of all need to sort out our legislation on the matter, say the lawyers.Roman Kovalenko – Center of legislative initiatives“The state program to utilize chemical waste should be written out. Special departments or authorities responsible for the utilization and control of the process should be appointed. There should be a list of companies that have a right to utilize chemicals. And the budget should include a line item for this utilization.”In the Ministry of the Environmental Protection of Ukraine, they say that they have long been dealing with this problem in order to completely resolve the chemical danger.Elena Nazarchuk – Specialist of the ecological safety department (Ministry of Environmental Protection of Ukraine)“The accumulation of pesticides and agricultural chemicals in the amount of 21.3 ths tons is typical for all Ukrainian regions, without exception. The Ministry is preparing a resolution for the Cabinet of Ministers which will enforce the control over the whole group of waste. Right now the Ministry is hearing the case for possibly holding tenders to take the Ukrainian waste abroad.Elga can neutralize not more than 750 tons of pesticides per year. So if Ukraine will try to use only its own capacity to utilize the toxins, it will take 28 years for the country to get rid of all agricultural chemicals. And this is still under the condition of constant financing. So the question is: do Ukrainians have that much time? And don’t state authorities worry about the health of the nation’s future generations?Music video “Toxins” from the group Multifimy and slide show along with it.All opinions and thoughts voiced out in the program are personal views of the program participants. The viewer derived to his own conclusions and evaluations.The program was created with the support of the Investigative Journalism Project in Eastern Europe (SCOOP)ZONE OF SPECIAL ATTENTIONTV UNION, 2007www.union.makeevka.com
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