Residents Of Navapolatsk Win Their Struggle For Fresh Air
- 11.07.2019, 17:13
- 5,078
The petroleum coke burner will not be built.
The Ministry of Energy responded to the petition of Navapolatsk dwellers, appealing to stop the creation of a petroleum coke burner at the Navapolatsk Central Heating and Power Plant, reports Vitsebsk Spring.
The Ministry of Energy informs that it has notified the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus “of the inexpediency of further work on the project implementation under the existing conditions”.
“Given that the Navapolatsk region remains one of the environmentally unfriendly in the country, appropriate design decisions and additional environmental measures will be required, which will lead to a significant increase in the cost of the construction project of boiler units for burning petroleum coke at the Navapolatsk Central Heating and Power Plant.
Considering the above and taking into account the negative attitude of citizens and local executive authorities revealed during public discussions, the Ministry of Energy informed the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus about the inexpediency of further work to implement the project on burning petroleum coke at the Navapolatsk Central Heating and Power Plant in the current conditions,” stated in the reply of Deputy Minister of Energy Volha Prudnikava.
“Great news: Navapolatsk managed to protect itself from building a petroleum coke burner!” human rights defender, activist of the campaign “For clean air of Navapolatsk” Dzmitry Salauyou responded to the message of the Ministry of Energy.
Important to note, in 2019, activists and environmentalists collected signatures under several electronic appeals to government bodies, protesting against the coke burning project at the Navapolatsk Central Heating and Power Plant. Almost 1800 people signed the first petition “Prevent an ecological catastrophe in Navapolatsk”. Also due to such activity, the public discussions of the EIA report of this project were suspended.
The total cost of the project could be more than $ 1 billion. The environmental consequences of the proposed construction could have been truly catastrophic.
