The ecological state of Kazanka is monitored by water, land and from the air
Andrey Agarkov, Deputy Chairman of the regional branch of the Russian Geographical Society and Vyacheslav Dolgov, Head of the Department of Water Protection of the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of the Republic of Tatarstan, told today about hiking expeditions and air flight within the framework of the pilot project of the Ministry of Ecology to improve the ecological condition of the Kazanka River.
Andrey Agarkov shared details about ground-based research. Today, as part of the first stage of the project, RGO members together with volunteers are exploring the coastal territory of the river. For this purpose, hiking expeditions and geographical research are conducted. All objects of negative impact identified during such campaigns are recorded in a special journal, information about violations and violators is transmitted to the Ministry of Ecology. "This is quite a difficult process, in order to walk 10 kilometers of the river we have to overcome 15-20 kilometers, because there are blockages of old trees on the way, at times we can come across a building. We decided to attract volunteers to participate in this scientific project. Every citizen with physical training can take part in field surveys, inspect the coastline and personally record certain violations," Andrei Agarkov said at a press conference in Tatar–Inform. A helicopter flight was also conducted as part of the pilot project. Vyacheslav Dolgov, head of the Department of Protection of Water bodies of the Ministry of Ecology of Tatarstan, told about its details. During the flyby, experts identified about 500 negative environmental factors. The main ones are anthropogenic. In water protection zones there are places of accumulation of garbage, diffuse drains, plowing of land, as well as restriction of free access to water. Also, as part of a pilot project to improve the ecological state of rivers and reservoirs, an ecological rafting took place. Vyacheslav Dolgov, who directly took part in it, noted: "In fact, it turned out to be a difficult alloy, since in some places the riverbed is littered with fallen trees and we had to saw them. In two days we collected more than 200 bags of garbage"
Let us recall, that a pilot project to improve the ecological condition of rivers and reservoirs of Tatarstan started in the spring of this year. The Kazanka River with tributaries was chosen as the object under study. Tatarstan citizens actively supported the project, as evidenced by the popular vote on the website of public services. The second stage of the project, which has already been supported by the Ministry of Natural Resources, provides for research with the participation of leading scientific organizations.
The result of the 2nd stage will be the preparation of the concept of the ecological framework of the catchment area of the Kazanka river and scientifically based recommendations to reduce diffuse pollution and improve water quality.