The disastrous floods that swept across Ukraine from
the Carpathian Mountains killing at least 30 individuals and destroying
thousands of kilometers of roads and riverbanks, homes and
infrastructure, and incurring an estimated $1.2 billion in damages, has
partially to do with rocks and trees.
The habit of abuse of natural resources in Ukraine
was inherited from Soviet days. It has, perhaps, accelerated in
Ukraine’s 17 years of independence with mass logging and the stripping
of rocks from riverbeds, particularly in Western regions.
Some of the logging happens on a minor scale by the
residents who seek cheap resources for building. But there are also
elaborate schemes involving corrupt local forestry officials and
cover-ups that sometimes go all the way to Kyiv.
Stripped of trees, the mountains turn into funnels
for vast amounts of water that arrives in the spring when the snow
melts, or in other seasons as the rain falls. This alone is a dangerous
formula capable of producing, or worsening, massive floods, as the
country experienced last week.
The rivers have themselves on a massive scale been
stripped of their natural fortification – the riverbed rocks, or shale.
Using bulldozers and trucks, shale has been scrapped, often without
permits, and shipped to Kyiv, where it is re-sold at markets or along
highways to wealthy citizens decorating their flashy dachas.
The complicated logging and riverbed quarrying
schemes are difficult to fight but the country certainly has the
resources for it. Although several government organs including the
Ministry for Natural Resources have the function of control over the
use of natural resources, there has been no significant prosecution of
illegal logging and other related crimes.
Ministry officials have told the Kyiv Post that a
few local residents have been caught for chopping down single pines in
the Carpathians, but the true criminals escape responsibility.
The recent disaster should make it easier to educate
the local ‘Ivans’ about the dangers of illegal logging and riverbed
quarrying, but it will only address a tiny segment of the problem. The
real meaningful action required is to punish illegal loggers and anyone
involved in corrupt cover-ups.
