For four years, a local livestock company in the village of Pokrovske, Poltava Oblast, has been dumping manure close to people's homes. Residents suffer from an unbearable stench and, in the warm season, from insects as well. The ecosystem has also been affected: sewage running into a pond has killed almost all the fish.
The situation was reported by the media outlet "Suspilne".
Impossible conditions
Local residents say that cow dung has been cleaned out and brought here for years. Tonnes of manure have already piled up, making people's lives unbearable because of the smell and the insects it attracts.
"When you go out to the vegetable garden and get on with your work, and it stinks, you start coughing and your eyes water. The laundry you hang out stinks. Even in summer I dry my washing indoors. It's unreal. And those midges... In the middle of the night they crawl into the windows and stick to the mosquito nets. You sit there, turn on a gadget, look at your phone, and they swarm all over it," said Vitalina Korniienko.
The resident says the waste is unloaded literally 100 metres from her house and three metres from her vegetable garden. The area used to be farmland. Locals say feed for the animals was grown there.
Source: Suspilne
Fish kill
Villagers claim that it was the sewage that caused the mass fish kill in the pond. Rain washed manure particles into the pond, and the pollution then made its way to the Psel River. People say that after heavy rain the water took on an unnatural colour and smell.
"There must have been a heavy downpour in July. And water ran from all these manure dumps and waste into the pond. A few days later the water had a foul smell and turned black, and literally a few days after that all the fish floated up. Perch and pikeperch, practically all of them died, there was a fish kill and they rotted," said local resident Mykola Savchenko.
According to Pavlo Pysarenko, head of the Department of Ecology at the agrarian university, manure can cause nitrogen pollution, and nitrogen compounds turn into nitrates and nitrites, excessive levels of which can harm the environment and people. At the same time, storing waste in this way violates sanitary standards.
"According to sanitary standards, for up to 1,200 cows the minimum distance to residential buildings is 300 metres. If there are more, the sanitary zone increases to 500 metres. This leads to mass fish deaths and, of course, to algal blooms in the water body," the scientist commented.
The company is silent
"Suspilne" specifies that the livestock complex belongs to the private company "Agroekolohiia", which has an office in the neighbouring village of Mykhailyky. Its owner is Hlib Lukianenko, and dairy cattle breeding is one of the company's activities.
At the end of October, journalists sent an inquiry to the company to find out who owns the plot and why the manure is taken there. Another important issue is whether the site is arranged in line with environmental standards. However, no response has been received so far.
Locals said that after the journalists' visit, the manure began to be removed: they saw four trucks. But recently, new manure has started being brought in to replace what was taken away.
"Manure should be stored on compacted sites. These are either concreted or asphalted areas, or covered pits. The rules for storing manure must be clearly set out in order to obtain a valuable fertiliser, humus. This takes three to six months. After that, it should be taken to the fields and applied as fertiliser," noted ecologist Pavlo Pysarenko.
To get the issue resolved, people are advised to contact the State Ecological Inspectorate and the police.
EcoPolitic previously reported where to file complaints about environmental crimes. In addition to the responsible authorities, people can use the "EcoZahroza" platform and the SaveEcoBot network of messenger bots.
