In Volyn, the head of the Dubiv community, Roman Trotsyuk, caught three people red-handed illegally loading a car with sand from a quarry in the village of Verbka.
On his Facebook page, he said that he took a photo of the crime and called the police.
Trotsyuk noted that illegal sand mining is a big problem for the community. However, in May 2022, the quarry was partially rehabilitated and prepared for sand collection to repair streets in two villages of the community.
"Unfortunately, some of the sand was stolen by non-honorable entrepreneurs," he said.
Trotsyuk also said that the attackers unloaded sand from the car when they saw it. Currently, the police is conducting an investigation, and the State Environmental Inspection is also working on the case.
"I hope that this case will be brought to a logical conclusion and we will know what sanctions await violators in reality, not on paper," he emphasized.
Trotsyuk also called on the residents of the community to call the police and take photos of the crime when such facts are discovered, because:
- when land is removed in places not designated for this purpose, these lands are considered violated;
- if no violator is found, the eco-inspectors impose a fine on the village council, which is residents' taxes that could be used to finance community needs or projects;
- the rural council will also have to pay a fine for disturbed land, tens of thousands of hryvnias for the preparation of the reclamation project, according to the order, and perform the reclamation.
He emphasized that disturbed lands will become an attractive place for unauthorized landfills, which entails additional costs for the community.
Earlier, EcoPolitic wrote, that in Kyiv they dug a pit with an area of 1,000 m2 in the landscape reserve "Urochyshche Tserkovshchyna" in the Holosiiv district, which caused damage in the amount of 155.5 thousand hryvnias.
As EcoPolitic previously reported, eco-inspectors in the Kirovohrad region recorded 2 facts of illegal mining by subsoil user enterprises outside their mining concessions, which caused losses of more than UAH 18 million.
