Kazan IT Park hosts All-Russian Junior Water Forum
Today, the opening ceremony of the III All-Russian Junior Water Forum took place at the site of the IT Park. Due to the current sanitary and epidemiological situation, the event is held online. More than 500 participants from 85 regions, as well as leading Russian scientists and experts of the water industry joined the Kazan platform via videoconference.
Roman Minukhin, Director of the Department of State Policy and Regulation in the Field of Water Resources, Environmental Economics and Federal Property Management of the Ministry of Natural Resources of the Russian Federation, Alexander Shadrikov, Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources of the Republic of Tatarstan, Ilya Razbash, Adviser to the Head of the Federal Agency for Water Resources, and Natalia Davydova, Director of the Institute for Consulting Environmental Projects, addressed the forum participants with a welcoming speech.
Opening the forum, Alexander Shadrikov noted that the Republic of Tatarstan is one of the most water–rich regions of the Volga Federal District, about 6.4% of the territory of our republic is covered with water, and water resources are also the most important energy source necessary for transport and, in general, to ensure the activities of all sectors of the economy. The Speaker thanked colleagues from environmental agencies and representatives of the Ministry of Natural Resources of Russia for their great support in the implementation of projects within the framework of the national project "Ecology". "It is environmental education that is the basis for a full-fledged solution to all environmental issues that arise today. In Tatarstan, much attention is paid to improving the eco-culture of citizens. Today, 103 environmental centers operate in all municipal districts, where ecology lessons are conducted according to specially developed textbooks. Also, students and pupils have direct access to the ecological and analytical laboratories of the Ministry and the entire volume of data obtained by us in the implementation of environmental monitoring of the environment," said Alexander Shadrikov.
Roman Minukhin, in turn, noted that many environmental projects are being implemented in the Republic of Tatarstan: "This is a lot of work, starting from social projects and ending with clean-ups, involving eco-volunteers. This year alone 270 thousand Tatarstan citizens took part in environmental actions. Thanks to the active position of citizens, Tatarstan occupies a leading place throughout Russia for participation in the federal project "Preservation of unique water bodies" of the national project "Ecology". If we talk about the whole of Russia, then one third of the participants of the action are Tatarstan citizens. Thanks to such an active approach, every third participant of the federal project "Preservation of unique water bodies" of the national project "Ecology" in Russia is a resident of the republic. Tatarstan occupies a leading place here. And it is no coincidence that the All-Russian Junior Water Forum is being held in the Republic of Tatarstan."
Within the framework of the forum, a question-and-answer dialogue session was held today for the first time with all regions, where young specialists were able to ask questions of interest to them. These are the problems of preserving unique water bodies, the creation and development of protected natural areas, microplastics and the threats it poses, and a number of others. The participants also discussed projects of youth water communities and digitalization trends. There were sections on the topics of public-state partnership in the field of education, regional and local environmental challenges, etc.
"Our task is to conduct a constant dialogue with the younger generation. Young people offer amazing ideas and the forum turns into an expert platform where we discuss interesting projects and proposals. We support all initiatives and projects related to the topic of protection and restoration of water resources," said Ilya Razbash, adviser to the head of the Federal Agency for Water Resources.
The closing of the forum will take place tomorrow. The guys will take part in the international session. As a result of the forum, the winners will receive grants that they can use to implement their own projects.
It should be noted that the main purpose of the forum is to involve interested boys and girls in solving issues of the development of the water management complex of the Russian Federation, as well as to attract the younger generation to project activities within the framework of the Russian National Junior Water Competition for the implementation of national projects in the field of ecology.