In Ukraine, for the first time in the years of independence, an indictment was sent to the court on the fact of committing ecocide, namely a mass plague in a tributary of the Sluch River.
Two employees of a heating water supply company in Khmelnytskyi region are accused of poisoning water resources with industrial discharges of cardboard and paper production, the Prosecutor General's Office reports in Telegram.
It is noted that law enforcement agencies received numerous complaints from residents of Khmelnytskyi and Zhytomyr regions.
The investigation established that the head and foreman of the enterprise's heating and water supply unit from October 2017 to January 2021 did not ensure high-quality and comprehensive cleaning of the enterprise's industrial effluents from pollutants.
It is noted that in the process of production, they systematically and intentionally discharged polluted return water into the river, in particular with exceeding the maximum permissible concentration of polluting toxic substances.
The report emphasized that because of this, all benthic animals died in an area about 4 km from the discharge site. River flora and fauna have disappeared due to water pollution, and the hydroecosystem has been destroyed.
As EcoPolitic previously reported, in November 2022, for the first time in Ukraine, two employees of a heating and water supply company were notified of suspicion of committing ecocide, namely the destruction of flora and fauna in the tributary of the Sluch River.
