The Government of the Republic of Moldova and the Government of Ukraine should devote attention to the serious worsening of the state of fluvial ecosystems, their continuous pollution, the existing risks of technical accidents and, consequently, the constant tendency of additional water and biodiversity loss and reduction of the potential to provide ecosystem services, which arouses concern among the scientific community and the general public. This is one of the recommendations of the participants in an international conference that centered on the results and prospects of the transboundary cooperation on the Nistru River, organized by “Eco-TIRAS” International Environmental Association of River Keepers.
In a news conference at IPN, Eco-TIRAS” executive director, doctor of biology Ilia Trombitski said the two-day international conference involved over 100 people of science, representatives of nongovernmental organizations, specialists and students from the Republic of Moldova, Ukraine, the Czech Republic and Sweden.
Ilia Trombitski expressed his regret at the absence of representatives of the Transnistrian region from the Nistean Basin Commission, including of its working groups, which would create problems in the fulfillment of the assigned tasks. They yet welcome the active involvement of nongovernmental organizations, specialists and people of science from the Transnistrian region in regional cooperation on the problems of the Nistru Basin, including within the Environmental Platform of the UNDP project “Confidence Building Measures in Moldova” that is supported by the EU.
The participants in the conference warned about the necessity of stopping immediately the degradation processes and of restoring the historically formed landscapes, forests and woods, steppe sites, river protection and wooded areas as elements of ecosystems that are valuable not only for the conservation of biodiversity. These play an important role in the adjustment to climate change and conservation of small rivers and in the current changes, such as drought, perturbation of the hydrological regime of rivers in the basin, which is associated with climate change and also with the failure of the countries of the basin to take appropriate adjustment measures. It also goes to a significant rise in the wooded part of the basin and development of an ecological network.
In the news conference, the participants asked Ukraine to abandon the plans to build six hydropower plants on the bank of the Upper Nistru as part of the governmental program to develop the hydroelectric energy in Ukraine until 2026, adopting an appropriate political decision. They recommended the Nistru basin countries to extend the network of immobile observation stations for the hydrological, temperature and hydro-chemical regimes of the river and to provide information online.
The participants in the event also wanted about the importance of conserving small rivers in the region and of preventing their overregulation as soon as possible as this leads to their ruining and death. They expressed their extreme concern about the threats posed to the Nistru by the multiple lakes existing upstream and that are full of chemicals. They asked the Ukrainian Government and international organizations to find the swiftest solution to eliminate the river pollution danger.
The conference was supported by the project “Enabling transboundary cooperation and integrated water resources management in the Dniester River Basin” (2017-2021) that was developed by the Global Environment Facility at the request of the Governments of Moldova and Ukraine. The program is implemented by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP, Istanbul) and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE, Vienna-Kiev-Chisinau), with support from the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (ECE-UN, Geneva).
