“Preventive measures” underway as current pushes polluted water from the Seym toward Kyiv

The Minister of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources, Ruslan Strelets, admitted in a comment ti Ukrinform the emergency situation in the Seym River, noting that polluted water must not reach the capital's water intake.

"Contaminated water moves at a speed of 20-25 km per day. We do our best to prevent it from reaching Kyiv's drinking water intake. This is our main task. On September 5-6, we will see whether the measures we are taking now prove effective," he said.

Options are being explored to tackle the pollution.

"In recent days, more than 50 samples have been taken, and over the past two days, another 28. Samples of contaminated water are constantly taken for lab research and tests in order to find the best solutions. Accordingly, samples were taken yesterday so that specialists at the waterworks treatment facilities (where the drinking water intakes are located) see whether they would be able to cope if polluted water reached these locations. That is, preventively, we are doing our best to stop this," he said.

The emergency commission convened earlier approved a set of countermeasures, including aeration, absorption, transfer of additional volumes of water, as well as dead fish collection and prevention of further deaths.

On August 30, experts started adding an absorbent to that water and proceeded with artificial aeration.

"We will see how effective this measure is on Monday. It takes time for the bacteria to start working," he said.

The minister noted that the substance that caused the pollution is of exclusively organic origin.

As reported by Ukrinform, law enforcement agencies have registered criminal proceedings into environmental damage as almost 10 tons of dead fish was collected in the Seym River within Sumy region.

Earlier, a number of media reported that poisonous substances were allegedly found in the Desna near Kyiv where water flows from Russia.

The state ecological inspection in Kyiv recorded no excessive concentrations of organic or mineral substances in the Desna within Kyiv region. The oxygen content was also within the norm, and no evidence of fish poisoning was detected.