Taking Action to Help the Volga

by Alene N. Case

In 1994, ECOLOGIA obtained funds through the ISAR/USAID grant program to expand its environmental monitoring network into Russia. The network now consists of more than 20 sites in 11 countries of the former Soviet Union, the Baltics, and Central and Eastern Europe. Monitoring is done by nongovernmental organizations, often in cooperation with local scientists and/or universities. Most of this monitoring now focuses on water quality, but some involves soil chemistry and air quality as well. The goals of the program are to increase public access to environmental information and encourage cooperation between NGOs and local governments through informed policy making and concrete solutions to local problems.

As the Russian Monitoring Network began, identical portable water quality laboratories were provided to NGOs active in environmental protection, at five stations along the Volga River. Data collected by each station can be used to compare water quality at various points along the river. In addition to this portable monitoring equipment, ECOLOGIA provided intensive training for the people who were new to the network.

One of these was Elena Kolpakova, who I met in the summer of 1994 when I traveled to Nizhny Novgorod to lead a training workshop. She is an engineer who works with the NGO EcoCenter Dront's project, Help the River. I was immediately impressed by two things: her energy and the lack of resources available for environmental work. During the past two years, Elena and her group have demonstrated that energy can make limited resources go a very long way.

The Help the River project was initially organized to address the pollution problems of the Volga River. However, these hard-working people quickly learned what many other NGOs in Russia have also discovered-the best way to help a large river is to clean up the smaller ones. Regular governmental monitoring of such smaller tributaries has not been carried out, but portable labs are uniquely suited to monitoring small streams and rivers. Therefore, Help the River concentrated its efforts on two projects to monitor tributaries of the Oka River, which in turn is a tributary of the Volga.

The first project centered around the Zapadno-Strelochny Canal, which has many industrial and storm water run-off discharges along its length. Help the River sampled the mouth of this channel four times and found very high levels of copper, zinc and nitrites. They also tried to identify all of the discharges into the channel. The largest manufacturer on the canal is an automobile factory. Since Help the River traced much of the pollution back to the factory, its administrators have begun to clean up its effluent. They are also planning to participate in a round table discussion with Help the River in March. The local agencies responsible for environmental protection have agreed to monitor the stream and inventory discharges into it.

The second project began when Help the River was approached by local citizens concerned about dumping along the Chyornaya River. The group visited the river and tested the water quality near a local dump site. A regional television station videotaped the work and aired the program three times. As a result of this publicity and the group's recommendations to local authorities, the offending parties were ordered to seal the dump. When they were slow to act, local people joined Help the River in a protest action outside the office of the director of the dump.

In addition to these local projects, Help the River has been involved in a cooperative project with the Green Party in Novokubishevsk. Analysis of the Svinukha River indicated that the concentration of copper in the river was 40 times higher than the maximum permissible level. The local authorities have now begun to establish regular sampling sites along this river.

Through its work, Help the River demonstrated that drawing attention to pollution can motivate government and businesses to take steps to correct environmental problems. By taking action, Elena Kolpakova and her Volga group can truly help the river.

Alene N. Case is ECOLOGIA's monitoring network coordinator.

ECOLOGIA, P.O. Box 142, Harford, PA, 18823; phone: (717) 434-9588; e-mail: ecologia@igc.apc.org