Eco-inspectors collected a powerful evidence base in the case of committing ecocide in connection with the pollution of the Sluch and Khomora rivers with untreated wastewater from a cardboard and paper enterprise.
Since 2015, they have been involved in investigative actions within the Poninka village of Khmelnytskyi region and the former Baraniv district of Zhytomyr region, reports State Environmental Inspection (SEI) on Telegram.
"As a result of the irresponsible and criminal attitude towards natural resources of the officials of the enterprise, who discharged insufficiently untreated water into the reservoir, irreversible negative changes in the ecosystems of the mentioned rivers took place. The flora and fauna of these reservoirs have been lost forever," the press service of the State Inspection Service emphasized.
The report noted that SEI specialists provided law enforcement officers with practical and methodical assistance and took water samples for examination. And since 2020, in accordance with the decisions of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Environmental Policy and Nature Management, monthly observations and controls have been carried out in the basin of the Sluch and Khomor rivers in the territory of Khmelnytskyi and Zhytomyr regions.
"Currently, the law enforcement officers have informed the officials about the suspicion of committing ecocide (Article 441 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine)," the eco-inspectors emphasized.
As EcoPolitic reported before, in Ukraine, for the first time in the years of independence, two employees of the heating and water supply company were reported in the suspicion of committing ecocide, namely the destruction of flora and fauna in the tributary of the Sluch River.
