Beavers don’t live here anymore. More precisely, they live, but no longer here

What divers and water treatment specialists do not find – rivers, streams, lakes and ponds – when they carry out their work.

Furniture, scooters and bicycles, sunken boats, phones, glasses and suitcases, backpacks with documents and computers, paper and plastic bags, as well as a huge number of branches and tree trunks – they get all this from the bottom during cleaning work. This year, almost a ton of garbage was removed from the waters of the Moscow River (within the city) and the navigable part of the Yauza River. But if you do not carry out regular clearing of river beds, do not remove garbage, silt, sedge and reeds, they begin to shallow, fish do not come to spawn in them, private farms cannot grow vegetables and fruits even for themselves, not to mention the fact that to sell surplus. Well, and so on.

Since the problem of water pollution is a pain not only for large cities, but for the whole country, three years ago Russia developed the federal project “Preservation of Unique Water Bodies”. It became part of the national project “Ecology” and is designed for five years – from 2019 to 2024. This year alone, more than fifty events have already been held within the framework of the national project. In total, by the end of 2022, about 344 kilometers of rivers, streams and channels will be cleared in Russia, and the territory of about 14 thousand hectares will be put in order on lakes and reservoirs.

This year, the final events within the framework of the project were also held in the Kaliningrad region. According to Oleg Stupin, Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources of the Kaliningrad Region, the clearing of the Kamenka River, as well as the Gagarinsky Stream and the Yalta Pond, is now being completed.

– By the end of the year, 15.3 km of the channel will be cleared on the Kamenka River. We also reconstructed the pumping station here, which pumps out water, and now we are restoring the system of reclamation canals. This made it possible to commission, probably, more than 10,000 hectares of agricultural land, to remove issues related to the flooding of the population,” explained Oleg Stupin. – During the work, probably about 60 thousand cubic meters of bottom soils accumulated over a very long period were taken out.

In fact, the locals have long forgotten how whitefish came to spawn in the river, that they could swim in it, take water from it to water their gardens. But, as the local resident Sergei Kitaykin says, once the river overflowed 200 meters.

– The last time it was cleaned, probably forty years ago, – says Sergey Kitaikin. – Gradually, the river began to overgrow with reeds and other vegetation, it was chosen by beavers who made dams. The river is almost gone. Now it has almost been cleared away, water has reappeared in it, and the beavers have gone somewhere. I hope that fish will come here again to spawn next year.

Another object, which is being completed this year as part of the national project in the Kaliningrad region, is the clearing of the Gagarin stream and the Yalta pond. The stream will be cleared almost 6.6 kilometers in length. This will fill the pond with water, which was once a favorite resting place for the inhabitants of the city. In the late 70s, it was no longer regularly cleaned, enterprises began to pour waste into it. As a result, the river and the pond became overgrown.

– We planned to remove about 14 cubic meters of bottom sediments from the pond. The work has not been completed yet, and we have taken out 20 cubic meters, – says Vasily Palkin, a representative of the contractor. – I think by the end of the year we will take out another 10 cubic meters. And then the pond will be cleared. By the way, while the clearing was going on, in addition to mud and silt, we found a variety of objects in the river, for example, a lot of weapons left over from the Second World War.

According to Natalia Sologub, Deputy Head of the Federal Agency for Water Resources, all our water bodies that we restore as part of the federal project to preserve unique water bodies, as part of the Ecology national project, are of great social importance.

“This is very important today. Because for many decades no one was engaged in clearing water bodies. Almost some of them are degraded. Now all this needs to be restored, to give a second life to water bodies. It is important for us that the result of this work is aimed at people,” said Natalya Sologub. – All our water bodies, which we restore within the framework of the national project “Ecology”, are of great social importance.

By the end of 2024, the Ecology national project will be completed. By this time, almost 600 kilometers of rivers, 23.5 thousand hectares of reservoirs and lakes should be cleared and restored.

Mona Platonov.