Expert: Environmental conditions in Belarus have improved for past decades
16:08, 8 December
Photo: pixabay.com
Environmental conditions in Belarus have been improving for the past several decades. Deputy Director of the International Sakharov Environmental Institute of the BSU Maria Germenchuk told a web-based press briefing, BelTA has learned.
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“For the past decades, environmental conditions in Belarus have been steadily improving in many respects. This has been possible thanks to the use of eco-friendly technologies and new solutions that are meant to have a lesser impact on the environment. The country's environmental policy provides for carrying out an environmental impact assessment before launching the construction of any new facility. This helps estimate and prevent any negative effects,” Maria Germenchuk said.
The state of atmospheric air and surface waters in Belarus is satisfactory, although radioactive contamination after the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant remains a problem, she said. “By the way, the coronavirus pandemic has had an interesting impact on the environment. Due to the decline in economic activity, for example Europe's air pollution index has started improving dramatically. The improvement was observed in the summer, although usually air quality deteriorates in summer,” Maria Germenchuk noted.
Belarus' environmental monitoring includes twelve types of monitoring: atmospheric air, surface water, soils, flora and fauna, radiation situation, and so on. A comprehensive monitoring of peatlands will soon be added to the list. Data is collected with the help of a network of observation stations across the country.
