Pollution in Lake Yalpuh, Ukraine

An extraordinary meeting of the commission on technogenic and environmental safety and emergency situations was held in the Odessa region. The main issue on the agenda was the prevention of fecal matter from entering the Minzul River and the protection of the ecosystem from a possible catastrophe.

Already from the moment the unauthorized shower of fecal masses was discovered, the Bolgrad city council began priority measures to stop criminal activities. At the meeting of the commission, it was decided to apply to the management of the enterprise where the violation occurred, with a request to provide an opinion on the safety of waste and provide a scheme for their removal and processing of fields.

According to official information, today the coverage of Komrat by the sewerage network is less than 35%, and the wastewater treatment plant is almost non-working - so all the sewage goes straight into the Yalpug River. Moreover, this station is so outdated that it cannot be restored. However, in Moldova, as well as in Ukraine, the central and regional authorities are in no hurry to invest money in expensive infrastructure projects, especially in the provinces. As a result, such problems await their solution for decades.

In June 2019, the first meeting of the Yalpuh River Basin Council was held in Comrat, which was attended by officials of the Moldovan and Ukrainian structures responsible for the operation and protection of water resources. Ukraine was represented at the meeting by the heads of the Basin Department of Water Resources of the Black Sea and Lower Danube Rivers and the Bolgrad inter-district Department of water management.

During the Council's work, Moldovan experts analyzed the ecological state of the Yalpug River basin. It was noted that the main sources of water pollution are untreated sewage from the cities of Taraclia, Comrat, Cimislia, and a number of villages in this region. Another pollution factor is the garbage dumps located along the banks of the Yalpug River. These landfills have identified toxic waste that also enters the river and groundwater.

Following the meeting, the participants of the Yalpuh River Basin Council decided to continue joint monitoring of the environmental situation in the region. But, as we see, the problem cannot be solved by monitoring alone - joint efforts of Moldova and Ukraine are needed at the intergovernmental level.

In 2018, water samples from the Yalpuh River were examined by the testing center of the state institution "Laboratory Center of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine for Water Transport" (Chernomorsk City, Odesa region). The staff of the center recorded the research indicators in protocols No. 994 and No. 995 dated October 8, 2018. The test results were shocking. In particular, in water samples from the Gagauz part of the Yalpuh River, an excess of the permissible content of bacteria of the Escherichia coli group by 240 times, ammonia and ammonium ions - by 46 times, nitrites - by 3 times, and the level of soluble oxygen was 1.5 times below the norm. In addition, the water did not meet Ukrainian standards for a number of other indicators.

In the summer of 2017, the quality of drinking water in Lake Yalpuh deteriorated sharply. The deterioration was so serious that it threatened the ecological and epidemic safety of the entire local population living on the banks of the reservoir. Mikhail Kurdoglov, head of the Bolgrad Interdistrict Department of the Odesa Regional Laboratory Center of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine, warned about the unsafe use of tap water. He noted that the use of poor-quality water can at any time lead to mass infectious diseases.

As shown by the results of laboratory studies of water samples from Lake Yalpuh at the place of the Bolgrad city water intake as of 2016-2017, the water, in terms of its salt composition and organic matter content, belongs to the fourth quality class, that is, it is unsuitable for centralized drinking and even domestic water supply. This fact became a definite starting point from which the problem of the water supply of Bessarabia received a loud public outcry and reached the offices of high-ranking officials in Kyiv.