In mid-August, against the backdrop of war, the world learned that the Ukrainian capital, kyiv, and its 4 million inhabitants were threatened by serious pollution affecting the Dysna River, via its tributary, the Seïm, coming from Russia. The intervention of the authorities, the treatment of the water, the collection of 43 tonnes of dead fish and the information of the communities along the waterways avoided the poisoning of local residents and the drinking water network. On September 10, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Chmyhal assured that the contamination was organic and not chemical, contrary to certain public assertions. Then he declared, without details, that Russia was at the origin of this catastrophe.
The World carried out its own investigation into this affair by going to villages affected by this possible ecocide, by consulting the experts mobilized on pollution and by accessing confidential reports written by scientists on this disaster, the weak response of which owes a lot to the noise of the ongoing conflict. It appears that although the exact origin of the products spilled into the Seïm has been identified, the cause of this spill remains, to date, unknown. Several hypotheses are accepted: an intentional act by Russian soldiers or civilians; the consequence, deliberate or collateral, of an armed operation carried out by Russia or Ukraine; and, finally, an accident.
At the end of October, nothing appears from the banks of the Seïm, at the foot of the town of Batouryn, 120 kilometers east of Chernihiv, in the north of the country. A great calm and a certain gentleness even welcome the visitor. Clear water flows peacefully under a suspended footbridge connecting the two banks. She has returned to normal since the beginning of the month. Only a few black marks at the bottom, along the banks, and oily residue floating on the surface attract the eye. “It’s misleading.corrects Leonid Dusha, 62 years old, mayor for ten years. La Seïm is dead. There are no more fish, no more traces of life. Experts told us it would take at least ten years to return to the previous state. »
Water turned coal black
From the top of a tower of the fortified enclosure, which dominates this large village of 2,500 inhabitants, in normal times, we can see the meanders of the Seïm rising towards the Russian border. It was from there that a pestilential smell arrived, on the evening of August 25, which invaded the entire city, followed by water that had turned coal black in which all forms of life had disappeared. The pollution was detected on August 14 in Manuhivka, the first Ukrainian village after the Russian border. “The mayors, upstream, alerted me, I was able to warn the population”relate Leonid Dusha.
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