Waste and plastic pollution

Significant decrease in the values of ingressing pollutants (lead, manganese, vanadium, formaldehyde, aniline) in the Don Basin waters compared to 2013 is due to failure to report on the use of water resources by the economic entities located in non-government-controlled areas in the upper reaches of the basins of the Kryvyi Torets, the Bakhmutka, as well as the Siverskyi Donets and its right-bank tributaries in the Luhansk region downstream from the village of Svitlychne. In addition, in 2013, the basin received hazardous substances which were not specified in the statistical reports for 2020: bismuth, cadmium, cobalt, molybdenum, tin, rhodanides, mercury, antimony, fluorine, chromium (III), cyanides.

The main share of these hazardous substances came with wastewater discharged by enterprises of the Luhansk region, mainly into the basins of the rivers the Luhan (50 – 97%), the Velyka Kamianka (5 – 95%), the Kundriucha (3 – 23%) and the Nyzhnia Bilenka (3 – 39%).

WASTE AND PLASTIC POLLUTION

Household waste entering rivers and reservoirs, in addition to distorting the aesthetic value of natural objects, leads to water pollution and garbage congestion, which negatively affects the chemical and ecological status of surface water bodies. In addition to chemical contamination from the remnants of spent products and their packaging, the greatest threat to aquatic ecosystems is posed by plastic. Variously sized shredded plastic particles end up in aquatic organisms, in particular fish and birds, often causing their death. Household waste pollution of the riverbed, its banks and floodplains is a common phenomenon not only in the Don basin, but also throughout the country. This phenomenon is explained, first and foremost, by the following factors: „ lack of holistic national legislation in the field of household waste management, „ lack of conditions for collection, removal and disposal of household waste in all settlements, recreation areas, „ low waste management culture of the population, „ low operational efficiency of the utilities services, „ insufficient attention to awareness raising, especially in the rural areas.

Source: Yaroshevych et al. Overview of the Key Water and Ecological Issues in the Don River Basin, materials for the OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Ukraine, 2021.