Document(s) 3 of 10

WE ARE GOING to take you on an imaginary voyage into the reality of the contemporary life of the Dnipro River and its tributaries. This will be a voyage to contemplate the disastrous outcome of the anthropogenic activity of Homo sapiens during the last one hundred years, which brought its ruinous impact on the primeval virginity of the landscape. This is a voyage of hope, hope that the time-worn waves of Dnipro the Glorious will reawaken and will become hail and hearty again, provided that nations come up with the spiritual energy to harmonise their existence with nature.

In Europe, the Dnipro ranks third, after the Danube and the Volga, for its water catchment area and fourth for its length. The areas of Russia and Belarus, through which the Dnipro flows, constitute 19% and 23% of its basin area, respectively. In Ukraine, the middle and lower sections of the Dnipro have a drainage area of 291.4 thousand square km.

The Dnipro's waters account for almost 80% of Ukraine's total water resources and 57% of those of Belarus. The annual average drainage at the mouth is 53 cubic km. When rains are scarce, the drainage drops to 43.5 cubic km and, in times of drought, it is reduced to 39 cubic km. About 32% of the average annual drainage comes from Russia's territory, 31% comes from Belarus. Drainage collected within the boundaries of Ukraine averages 19.7 cubic km and during dry spells decreases to 12 cubic km.

Close to 33 million people live within the Dnipro basin area, 22 million of whom live in Ukraine. The cumulative water surface area of the human-made cascade is 7,000 square km, with a total capacity of 44 cubic km. About 70% of Ukraine's water resources are accumulated within this system. Today, it represents an important source of fresh water, which is used for various agricultural purposes.

The water from the Dnipro is used for industrial and agricultural needs, in the housing and municipal sectors, for hunting and fishing, and for transportation purposes. Every year about 17-18 cubic km of water drains from the Dnipro, 50% of which is used in the industrial and energy sectors and 30% by agriculture. About 1.5 million ha of farmland in the Dnipro basin and in the autonomous republic of Crimea is irrigated with water from the Dnipro. The cascade of artificial reservoirs, the lower Dnipro, and the Dnipro-Buh estuary form the bulk of water used for commercial purposes. Commercial and utility usage accounts for 18%. Of the 44.8 cubic km of Dnipro water collected in Ukraine only 8.5 cubic meters reaches the Black Sea. The hydro power stations on the Dnipro have a generating capacity of 10,000 megawatts per hour. But their share of the total energy sector constitutes a modest 3-5%, which raises the question of the rationale of using the river valley at the expense of losing a unique biological resource.

The Dnipro not only supplies water for consumers located within its basin area, it is also a major, and sometimes the only, source of water for large industrial centres. By and large, the Dnipro supplies two-thirds of the entire territory of Ukraine with water, 57% of Belarus (with a population of 6.2 mil.), and also Smolensk, Briansk, and several other oblasts in Russia. This translates to some 30 million people, 50 large cities and industrial centres, some 10,000 enterprises, 2,200 businesses in rural areas, over 1,000 utility companies, 53 irrigation complexes, and four nuclear power stations in Ukraine. The Northern-Crimean canal supplies water to the entire Crimean peninsula. The Kakhovka canal meets the water needs of the eastern part of the Kherson and the southern part of Zaporizhzhia oblasts. The Dnipro-Donbas canal not only meets the needs of industrial clients, the energy sector and the municipal facilities in Donetsk, Luhansk, and Kharkiv oblasts, but it also improves the environmental status of the heavily contaminated water from the Siversky Donets by mixing it with clean water from the Dnipro. The Dnipro-Kryvyi Rih and Dnipro-Ingulets Canals are used to channel water to the industrial centres in the Kryvbas mining area.

The contemporary Dnipro flows from the Prypiat River's mouth all the way to Nova Kakhovka. The river originates in a modest spring in the Valdai Uplands near the Akseninskyi marsh in Smolensk Oblast (Russian Federation). It then travels for 2200 km before it empties into the Black Sea, running through the territory of Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine. At its headstream, the river is merely a brook, a rivulet with silty banks, which has nothing in common with the powerful image of Dnipro the Wide, which "roars and groans," where "...no ordinary bird can fly half way through its waters." Along the way to the Black Sea, the river "collects tribute" from its tributaries, grows powerful, and makes its entrance into Ukraine as a wide-flowing river starting at the picturesque town of Liubetch on the border with Belarus. The bulk of the water influx comes from the rivers of the Polissya region—the Prypiat, Desna, Teteriv, Berezyna, and Sozh. Eighty-four percent of the river's water is amassed on the territory of Belarus and Russia. The Dnipro has 15,380 tributaries, which amount, in total, to 67,156 km in length.

The following large cities are located in the Dnipro basin: in Russia, Smolensk, Safonovo, Dorogobouzh, and Briansk; In Belarus, Orsha, Shklov, Mogilyov, Bykhov, Rechitsya, and Loyiv (on the Dnipro River), Minsk, Borysov, Bobruisk, and Svetlogorsk (on the Berezina River), Pinsk and Mozyr (on the Prypiat River), and Gomel and Krytchiv (on the Sozh River); in Ukraine, Kyiv, Cherkasy, Kremenchuk, Dniprodzerzhynsk, Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhzhia, Nikopol, Energodar, Kakhovka, and Kherson (on the Dnipro River), Chernihiv (on the Desna River), Bila Tserkva (on the Ros' River), Poltava (on the Vorskla River), and Kryvyi Rih (on the Ingulets River).

On the territory of Ukraine, the Dnipro riverbed seems to meander, and is broken into distributaries. The Dnipro carries its waters across the marshes of Polissya, through the forest-steppe and the steppe areas, each of these lending the river its uniqueness. The plains of Polissya are infrequently embellished with sandy hills, dunes, ridges, and boulders accumulated from hydro-glacial activity. It abounds in sandbars and shoals. Navigation is possible for a stretch of almost 2,000 km, up to the town of Dorogobouzh. Artificial canals connect the Dnipro with the Western Dvina (through the Berezan' water system, built in 1805), with the Neman (through the Dnipro-Neman Canal, built in 1784) and with the Western Buh (through the Dnipro-Buh canal, built in 1848). It encompasses a cascade of artificial reservoirs: Kyiv, Kaniv, Kremenchuk, Dniprodzerzhynsk, Dnipropetrovsk, and Kakhovka, which were built as early as 1961. The original river channel and part of the Dnipro's holms had to be flooded to allow for their construction. It is only in some places in between the reservoirs that the river has preserved its original appearance. Among those are the Bila Tserkva marsh-meadows in Kremenchuk, a part of the Kaniv wildlife sanctuary, and the lower reaches of the Dnipro below the Kakhovka dam. Nowadays, the Dnipro is a deep waterway for river-to-sea vessels delivering cargo to all seaports on the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov. It is clear that the historical trading route 'from the Varangians to the Greeks' has never lost its appeal. Nowadays, people wish to restore it but, as we will explore later, the Chernobyl meltdown has become a major obstacle.

Among all the artificial 'seas' of the Dnipro cascade the most recently built is the one near Kaniv. Lengthwise, it exceeds the Kyiv reservoir, which is located upstream, 1.5-fold, and has a water surface area four times larger. Its steep and rocky right bank is dressed in the verdure of orchards and parks. The picturesque landscape bears a resemblance to a foothill setting. The deep and narrow ravines are covered with hops and other climbing vegetation. The hills rise up to 150 meters. One of those hills bears the name of the national poet Taras Shevchenko, who used to marvel at the beauty of the time-worn waters of the Dnipro. A monument was erected on the grave of the Great Kobzar to commemorate the memory of the great poet.

Downstream from Kaniv the landscape of the Dnipro banks begins to change. The high hills on the right bank disappear: one can see a few small hills, but these are no match in size or beauty for the grand hills near Kaniv. The river flows across flat plains, covered with meadows and forests. Downstream from the mouth of the Ros' river the hills disappear altogether. The stretch between Kaniv and Kremenchuk belongs to the largest of the Dnipro's artificial bodies, the Kremenchuk Water Reservoir. It stretches for 185 km and has a water surface of 2250 square km. From the west, the Dnipro is replenished by water from the Tyasmyn and Ros' rivers, and from the east by water from the Sula and Supiy. Near the Sula the reservoir is 30 km wide. In stormy weather, waves may reach 3.5 metres in height. Heavy waves, swept by the winds, tumble down on the banks and erode them away further. For the local residents the erosion of these banks has dire consequences. This is yet another example of the adverse impact of the artificial ecosystem.

After Kremenchuk, the Dnipro flows across a vast southern Ukrainian steppe, which is part of a large steppe that is thousands of years old, stretching from the Ural Mountains to the Danube. Downstream lies the Dniprodzerzhynsk reservoir. The river banks are more harsh here compared to the reservoirs upstream. Here, one may come across formations of grey and rare light pink granite, which is part of the Ukrainian crystalline massif. Boulders and rock formations, the so-called pales, are embedded in the very riverbed, although they are now hidden by the higher waters resulting from the construction of hydro-electric dams. According to the Ukrainian archaeologist and historian V. N. Danylenko, the Ukrainian crystalline massif was referred to by the ancient tribes as the "storehouse of vital powers" or borysthen. This may serve as an explanation of the origin of ancient names of the Dnipro, also known as Borysphen or Borysthen.

As the Dnipro approaches the town of Orsha, it runs into boulders and limestone formations, which make up the so-called Kobelyatski rapids range, which was destroyed in the early 20th century for navigation purposes.

Below the rapids the Dnipro meets the Black Sea Maritime plains. The river valley here is about 20-30 km wide and the river begins to divide into outlets, forming a multitude of islands. The lower segments of the Dnipro are heavily dependent on the Kakhovka artificial reservoir. It has an area somewhat smaller than that of the Kremenchuk Reservoir, but has 1.4 times the water capacity. Its width ranges from 20 to 28 km. The waterways of the lower and the upper Dnipro are connected by a three-chamber lock system. Locks work in an elevator-like fashion, hoisting and lowering vessels within a distance comparable to the height of a 15-story building. When a ship leaves the locks it enters the lower part of the Dnipro—the Kakhovka artificial reservoir.

The river port and the city harbour in Zaporizhzhia are the entry points for downstream navigation. There are no traces of the original river at this junction. Ships traverse the quiet waters of the Kakhovka Reservoir. Downstream from the city of Kherson, the river, carrying the waters collected from all its tributaries, empties into the Dnipro-Buh estuary, and flows all the way down to the Black Sea. The flood plain is riddled with numerous streams, where reeds, willows, and other hygrophilous plants grow. This area was known as the famous Dniprovski plavni (holms) made up of Bazavlutski and Kinski plavni, which resemble the Kozaktskyi Velykyi Luh ("Cossack Meadow Land"). Nowadays, the area is flooded by the Kakhovka human-made reservoir. It continues to serve as spawning grounds for sturgeon and other valuable fish species.

The ancient Greek historian, Herodotus (490-424 BC), visited the lower part of the Dnipro. He wrote:

Borysphen is by far the biggest and the richest river in nutrients. It stands above not only Scythian rivers, but all other rivers as well, with the exception of the Nile in Egypt... And it is by far the most beautiful river. It provides lush pastures for cattle, excellent and plentiful fish. The water is clean and it tastes well... It is framed by excellent farmland and tall wild grass grows in non-cultivated areas... Borysphen is home to gigantic fish with no backbone (sturgeon)... and many other things. (cited in 30)

In the anthropogenic interventions made in the Dnipro basin, the lands of the nature reserves are oases of biodiversity and rich nature. The current Podniprovya conservation zone (in the lower reaches of the Dnipro) encompasses over 50 territories and sanctuaries of various access categories and gradings. Twenty-five percent of the assets consist of constructed facilities, which include botanical gardens, parks, landscape gardening areas, etc. Flora and fauna in the forest-steppe and steppe areas in the Dnipro basin are similar to those in the Polissya, Kaniv, and Maritime natural reserves.

The modern Dnipro is no longer a natural source of fresh and clean water. Nor is it a natural ecosystem. Rather, it is a complex biotechnological conglomerate, reduced to absurdity by humans, where the very environment is a hazard for human existence.

The self-regenerative capacity of the Dnipro waterway is not capable of restoring the environmental balance any more. Each year, industry, agriculture, and municipalities discharge enormous amounts of contaminated waste water into the Dnipro. Every year, 5.5 million cu meters of sewage are dumped into the water bodies of Ukraine, which includes 4.2 million. cu meter of contaminated sewage, 2.8 million of which is raw waste. The runoff adds an excessive amount of biogenic and toxic organic matter to water, accumulating over time in sedimentary deposits with the potential to become a source of secondary water contamination.

Economic activity in the Dnipro basin has developed without adequate economic or environmental considerations for many decades. It resulted in the formation of a sectoral and territorial economy with a dominant fuel-energy sector and metallurgical, defence, and machine-building industries, each of which is a heavy polluter with high energy consumption rates and large irrigated areas.

We have every reason to believe that the most aggressive pollutants of the Dnipro and its reservoir are municipal utilities, ferrous and non-ferrous metallurgy, coking and chemical industries, the machine-building, transport, and energy sectors, and agriculture. Some of the large-scale industrial pollutants include the smelter in Dniprodzerzhynsk, the industrial complex 'Zaporozhstal' in Zaporizhzhia, and the smelter in Dnipropetrovsk. During the period of transition to a market economy the country has gone through a difficult time, where the water treatment facilities, enterprises, organisations, industrial storage tanks, and agricultural effluent reservoirs have discharged an increased amount of raw untreated waste.

The following are some of the complex environmental issues arising from commercial activities in the Dnipro basin over the last decades: construction of the cascade of reservoirs; network of irrigation channels; colossal water withdrawal to accommodate industrial and communal needs; huge volumes of sewage runoffs; pollutant runoff from the agricultural industry; and water transport impact, to name a few.

The artificial reservoirs and canals made it easier to supply water to industrial and agricultural centres in Ukraine, where water resources were practically depleted. However, the management objectives were met at the expense of environmental targets: the equilibrium of the Dnipro-Black Sea ecosystem was disturbed, the drainage conditions were changed radically, and the fresh water runoff to the Black Sea was reduced, which depleted the surface layer of the Black Sea. The situation was aggravated by the construction of reservoirs on the Don and Kuban rivers in Russia, which triggered a range of other negative impacts.

The reservoirs of the Dnipro cascade are subject to severe technological environmental strain. They accumulate every type of contaminant, which comes from the water catchment area. The cascade pattern prevents natural factors from maintaining environmental balance in all the reservoirs, except the upper one—the Kyiv Reservoir. Going downstream from the upper to the lower Kakhovka Reservoir, one may notice that natural drainage is losing its significance, while the internal factors are on the rise, which again confirms the fact that reservoirs are turning into natural cesspools. This is specially evident in the Dnipro and Kakhovka Reservoirs, which have registered a significant increase in the amount of blue-green algae, manifesting itself through so-called water 'blooms'.

Regulation of river runoff and its territorial distribution through the Dnipro cascade is an important issue and will remain relevant in the regeneration of water resources and water supply. Nevertheless, the status of reservoirs is a public concern, as it may determine whether ecological problems of the Dnipro will be resolved. The point is that the creation of the Dnipro reservoirs resulted in the flooding of a considerable land area and caused changes in the hydrological, hydro-chemical, and hydro-biological conditions. Functional and structural changes turned the ecosystem from a river type to that of a river-lake type, which slowed down the water exchange and self-regeneration rate and increased water loss due to evaporation, infiltration, etc. Proposals have been submitted to gradually drain the artificial reservoirs to restore the Dnipro to its original state and to begin using the flooded areas as farmland.

However, as research indicates, draining the reservoirs will have catastrophic implications for both the economy and for the people. Losses in the budget incurred from de-commissioning half the industrial capacity of the major utility, transport, and other enterprises, as well as decreased productivity of irrigated lands, may ruin the national economy. Furthermore, the Dnipro's sanitary and epidemiological conditions will deteriorate due to radioactive contamination of the reservoir bed sediments. If the latter accumulate on the hydro-dynamically unstable silt sediments, a re-distribution of radionuclides may be triggered. Reservoirs' drainage could accelerate this process and a secondary radioactive contamination could occur in the newly restored land covered with non-deactivated and non-reclaimed radioactive silt. It is therefore unlikely that the rehabilitation of the Dnipro and its reservoirs will come from phased-in drainage. It would result in miniscule economic benefit compared to forecasted consolidated losses.

In the areas bordering the artificial reservoirs inundation and flooding of land continues to be a factor. The unprotected areas affected by the reservoirs cover 90 thousand hectares and the unprotected shallow water area accounts for 133 thousand hectares. Nowadays, about 100 towns and urban settlements are inundated, which is related to other adverse factors like the transformation of lands, degradation of flora and fauna, silting, swamping, and water enrichment.

The environmental situation in the Dnipro basin is aggravated by increased erosion and river bank deterioration. Tilling of the soil up to the water intake points reached 65%. In Kherson Oblast and in river basins of some small rivers it is as high as 80-85%, while the norm is 40%. The afforestation of territory runs an average of 14% compared to the standard of 30%. Over the last 25 years, the area of eroded lands has increased by 28% and the total humus content in the soil has declined by 10%. Erosion affects water bodies and it increases silting and contamination with organic compounds and mineral fertilisers, specifically with nitrogen and phosphorus.

Small rivers in this basin, which account for more than 90% of its fluvial net and which determine the health status of the Dnipro River itself, are under extreme anthropogenic strain. The annual water intake from small rivers may reach 2.1 cubic km. The small rivers meet 18% of all the economic needs in the Dnipro basin. This fine hydrographical network absorbs 15% of all sewage and 6% of contaminated water dumped into the river basin. Almost half of the Dnipro's tributaries are polluted with chlorine organic pesticides, whose levels exceed admissible concentration limits for fish farming purposes.

Surface runoffs from agricultural properties, farms, and cattle farms contaminate water reservoirs. Contaminated subsurface water and discharge from urban and rural centres aggravate the situation. Drainage from the irrigation system is a powerful source of contamination by pesticides, herbicides, and mineral salt pollution. Annually, 19.1 thousand tons of nitrogen, 0.63 thousand tons of phosphorus, and 0.118 thousand tons of pesticides are washed away from the Dnipro basin.

There is practically no water-protection zone where appropriate practices are abided by. Arable land in these zones is ploughed to the point of water intake. This is where livestock farms, summer enclosures for cattle, and centres for the production of mineral fertilisers and pesticides are located. Aggressive ploughing, excessive growing of tilled crops, and insufficient afforestation in the water intake zones increase the erosion process and lead to muddying and contamination of rivers and water bodies. The problem is aggravated by the fact that in the last few years river banks and flood plains have been allotted for dacha construction, orchards, and vegetable gardens. The system of irrigation has resulted in the mineralisation and salinisation of soil, a decline in soil fertility, and flooding of territories. This brings us again to the absurd result of the reckless activities of an ecologically irresponsible society.

Not long ago, about 23,000 tons of fish was harvested annually in the Dnipro. The share of valuable fish species—bream and zander—accounted for 16% of the total catch. The 1990s registered a decline in fishing stock both in the Dnipro and other bodies of water in Ukraine, which is reflected in the reduced quality and quantity indicators in fishing and other related industries. The annual catch in the Dnipro reservoirs decreased to 8,800 tons in the lower part of the Dnipro. It shrank by 3.2 times in the Dnipro-Buh estuary, which is the equivalent of 2,600 tons. The basic factor which brought this about is water contamination, disturbance of the natural cycle of the hydrological regime of the reservoir, the lack of efficient equipment designed to protect fish stock at the vast majority of water intake facilities, and the insufficient scale of piscicultural amelioration.

Virtually no forest conservation measures are observed. Regulatory non-compliance has resulted in a situation where water protection zones no longer perform their function as buffers against contamination. Instead, they themselves become the sources of pollution.

The situation across the regions, due to poorly designed and environmentally unsafe water management practices in the larger part of the Dnipro basin, is dire. Ninety-four percent of towns, 50 percent of settlements, and about three percent of villages in rural areas have centralised sewer systems. The carrying capacity shortage of bio-treatment facilities in cities and towns constitutes 442 thousand cubic meters per day. About 2,160 km of emergency sewer lines require replacement. Zhytomyr, Zaporizhzhia, Rivne, and Cherkasy Oblasts (all in Ukraine) have no mechanical wastewater purification facilities. Moreover, the low efficiency of existing water treatment stations contributes to the adverse impact on the Dnipro. In particular, the centralised biological treatment facilities perform insufficiently, containing mostly industrial wastewater that enters the facilities without preliminary purification. In essence, there are no local treatment facilities in the Dnipro basin capable of desalinating the water or removing the excess mineral substances.

The excessive anthropogenic strain was intensified after the Chernobyl power plant accident, during which radionuclides were released into the environment, disturbing the balance of nature and resulting in the deterioration of water resources potential, culminating in an ecological emergency in the Dnipro basin. The problem of run-off and the appearance of strontium-90 in the Dnipro reservoirs remains of primary importance (incidentally it remains in water as a soluble). Every year spring floods increase its content in the waters of the Prypiat River and the Kyiv Reservoir. Most radionuclides are accumulated in the Kyiv, Kremenchuk and Kakhovka Reservoirs. All radionuclides, with the exception of iodine and strontium, settle very rapidly into the riverbed sediments, which formed as far back as the nuclear meltdown in 1986. Nowadays, Ukraine's radiological and sanitary situation on the Dnipro cascade appears safe for the population and economy. The content of radionuclides in the water and in fish is under permissible levels. It approaches guideline values only during certain times of the year and in certain locations. With regard to strontium-90, it slightly exceeds the guideline indicators.

All the above-mentioned factors have resulted in the degeneration of the entire ecosystem of the Dnipro basin, and, in particular, in a significant deterioration of water quality. The original quality may never be restored. Water in most of the rivers is chemically contaminated. The river segments downstream from big industrial centres, cities and industrial enterprises are heavily polluted. Large and particularly old cities that stand on small rivers discharge uncontrollable solid and liquid waste into the rivers. The storm wastewater and surface water is drained from industrial areas into the small rivers. Water in these rivers resembles water from the ditch or an open sewer, which means that, in essence, those rivers have become natural open sewer collectors. But the path to restoration can only come about as a result of a consistent national policy, through a well-integrated regeneration process, and the optimisation of resources management.

The contemporary Dnipro basin features not only a degraded ecosystem and defaced landscapes that once used to catch the fancy of foreigners as strikingly rich and beautiful and provide the local ethnos with every type of natural resource. We are not only talking about the reservoirs, canals, cities, industries, and power stations. The Dnipro basin comprises numerous landmarks which go back thousands of years in history. It is the birthplace of the cultural values of the nations that used to live there and continue to live there today, forming its spiritual essence. If we fail to restore these spiritual treasures, we will never attain the environmental rebirth of the Dnipro, nor the harmony of its vital powers.

Yet, Borysphen is the most beautiful river of all.

Herodotus (4th cent. B.C.)

Document(s) 3 of 10