ULRMC Participated in the Environmental Expedition to the Dnipro River Source

A public group trip under the UNDP/GEF Dnipro Basin Environmental Program symbolized the beginning of the Dnipro River rehabilitation. The key objective of this expedition was to attract the attention of all levels of the public in the Dnipro Basin countries to the problems of the Dnipro.

The Steering Committee consisted of the National Program Management Committees in Belarus, the Russian Federation and Ukraine, UNDP-GEF Program Management Group and the senior management of the International Development and Research Center (IDRC).

The event commenced near the Dnipro source in Vyasma, a Russian city with a rich history, which is now a major polluter of the upper Dnipro stream. The final event of the trip was the inauguration and consecration of the newly mounted sign "Dnipro Source" symbolizing the joint effort of the three countries in the rehabilitation of the Dnipro Basin. The event demonstrated the need for establishing a natural reserve on the Valdai Hills to protect the sources of the Volga, Dnipro and Dvina Rivers that flow into the Caspian, Black and Baltic Seas.

The Dnipro Rehabilitation Foundation, Smolensk, invited ULRMC management to the inauguration. ULRMC representatives presented satellite images showing the borders of the three countries, borders of the Dnipro River system and ramifications of environmental problems to the representatives of Smolensk Oblast Administration, Belarus and Russia. Recently, UNOPS and ULRMC signed a contract for the development of a National Report on the Ecological State of the Dnipro River. Presently, ULRMC is conducting a project on the Analysis and Assessment of Monitoring the Potential Impacts of Negative Influences on the Dnipro River Ecosystem.

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