The Volga is being raised to Krasnopresnenskaya embankment

A new government commission may be created in the White House, which will balance a comprehensive solution to the problems of shallowing and pollution of the Volga and Don basins with the needs of the economy, for which the Volga alone provides more than half of all river transportation in the Russian Federation. The draft regulations on the new legal commission were developed by the Ministry of Natural Resources on behalf of Deputy Prime Minister Victoria Abramchenko, who will presumably head the new body, while the commission is proposed to include, in addition to the economic and environmental departments, the Prosecutor General’s Office, which will have to ensure the fight against illegal economic activities in river basins.

The Ministry of Natural Resources has developed and published on regulation.gov.ru a draft government resolution “On the Government Commission for the Development of Water Management Complexes in the Volga and Don River Basins” – the State Duma had previously approached the White House with a proposal to increase the administrative status of the body for solving river problems. The reason for this was the systemic problems of shallowing and pollution of the largest rivers of the European part of the Russian Federation, requiring a broader consolidation of the efforts of departments than the specialized national project “Ecology” assumes, while it is necessary to maintain normal economic activity for the sake of economic growth.

We would like to remind you that a separate federal project of the national project “Ecology” has been aimed at solving the problems of the Volga since 2018, which is due to the high transport, water and social significance of the river for the Russian economy: it assumes that by 2024 the volume of polluted waste discharged into the Volga will be reduced by 2 ,12 cu. km per year – three times compared to the level of 2017, as well as the modernization of wastewater treatment plants in the Volga cities, clearing the canals of the Volga-Akhtuba floodplain and the construction of hydraulic structures.

However, the problems of the Volga turned out to be broader than the framework of the federal project: in the conditions of adaptation of the economy to the new reality, environmental measures often conflict with the need to maintain and accelerate economic growth, while the Volga basin unites 39 regions of the Russian Federation, in which up to 70 million people live, it accounts for more than half of the river transportation in the Russian Federation, the volume of water consumption from surface objects in its basin is about 13 cubic meters. km (43% – energy, 27% – housing and communal services, 9% – industry, 8% – agro-industrial complex, 13% – “other areas”). Experts previously pointed out that the shallowing of the Volga is due to the low water content of small tributary rivers, which do not fall within the perimeter of the federal project. Moreover, as Mikhail Mishustin reported in the spring of 2023, the federal project itself, after reformatting their system in 2024, is proposed to be expanded from 2025 – both to the entire Volga basin (which will allow it to cover an additional 14 regions), and to the Don, Amur, and Amur rivers. Ural, Terek and Irtysh.

If the option of the Ministry of Natural Resources is supported, the government commission will include representatives of both the economic (Ministry of Energy, Ministry of Construction, Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Transport, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Industry and Trade, Ministry of Economy, Rosreestr, Rosmorrechflot, Rosrybolovstvo) and environmental (Roshydromet, Rosvodresursy, Rosprirodnadzor) blocks of the government, as well as security officials from Prosecutor General’s Office. The ministry-developer sees the main tasks of the commission as coordinating the actions of government bodies and selecting priority projects for restoring the ecology and the possibility of economic use of the largest river basins. The security forces as part of the government commission will have to, in particular, monitor “the legality of the placement of capital construction projects within the boundaries of coastal strips and flood zones in the Volga River basin,” which was of particular concern to the deputies, as well as ensure “the sufficiency and effectiveness of decisions taken by regional executive authorities and local government bodies take measures to ensure a sustainable supply of water to the population and guaranteed operation of water intakes in low-water conditions,” which was required from the supervisory agency by a State Duma resolution.

Oleg Sapozhkov