Ukraine’s Donbas Bears the Brunt of Toxic Armed Conflict

A year before the war broke out, the region hosted 5,500 industries which produced 4.3 million tons – equivalent to 44 per cent of the country’s emissions. Due to destruction of production infrastructure and emergency mechanisms, environmental degradation risks have significantly increased.

And the damage doesn’t stop there: the Siverskyi (Seversky) Donets River – the most polluted river in Ukraine before the conflict – is a tributary of the Don River, flowing through the neighbouring Russian Federation.

Pollution of the 650-mile long waterway, generated by the conflict, continues to pose health risks for the population living along the Don, for whom the river is the main source of water. Suspension of farming gave weeds and rodent mice space to thrive and reproduce, further endangering public health.

“Donbas is on the precipice of an ecological catastrophe fueled by air, soil and water pollution from the combustion of large amounts of ammunition in the fighting and flooding at industrial plants. There is an urgent need for ecological monitoring to assess and minimize the environmental risks arising from the armed conflict,”said UN Environment Programme Analyst Dr. Leila Urekenova.

During the war, institutions which protect nature reserves have lost staff. This has led to an increase in environmental law violations, massive poaching, illegal logging and the disruption of waste management operations. Invasive species such as jackal, sunfish and the Asian lady beetle have also expanded and colonized the conflict zone and adjacent areas.

The forests in the Donetsk and Lugansk provinces of Donbas region play a crucial role in the natural and man-made landscapes, by preventing wind and water erosion and by ensuring the stability of water supply bodies.

Besides creating a favourable environment for the local fauna and flora, the region’s massive pine forests play a key social and economic role, as they are often used for recreation, hunting, and mushrooms, berries, and herbs picking.

According to an assessment carried out by UN Environment’s Science-Policy Platform on Environment and Security, the conflict has affected, damaged, or destroyed ecosystems within an area of at least 530,000 hectares, including 18 nature reserves covering an area of 80,000 hectares.

Furthermore, 150,000 hectares of forests have been impacted, with 12,500 forest fires blazing through the military operations zone and adjacent areas.

In 2014 alone, the lack of forest protection and the fighting led to the near irreversible destruction of 479 hectares of forests. The fighting has had direct mechanical and chemical impacts on trees, including shrapnel damage of barks, branches, tops, ground vegetation, weakening or killing individual trees and entire plantations.

The military operations zone has also been contaminated by unexploded ordnance whose elimination could take years or decades, based on the experience of other countries such as Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, and Macedonia.

UN Environment is working with countries and communities to prevent, or reverse, environmental degradation and mismanagement. As the leading global authority on the environment, it also promotes a more proactive approach to environmental risk and disaster reduction in the long term.

This will enhance the ability of communities to withstand shocks and environmental change.

Learn more about UN Environment’s work the environmental causes and consequences of disasters and conflicts.

*SOURCE: This article was published in UN Environment. Go to ORIGINAL.  2018 Human Wrongs Watch