POLLUTION OF RIVERS

Press, Issue 29236, 21 June 1960, Page 24

POLLUTION OF RIVERS

Concern Felt In Russia (from a neuter uorresponaeny MOSCOW. Russians are becoming alarmed at the pollution of the nation’s 225,000 miles of river, which is killing fish and endangering health. Pollution, a by-product of twentieth-century industrialisation, has bedevilled some Western countries for many years, but only recently has the Soviet Union, as it geared its industry for giant strides forward, given serious thought to the problem. Now many Soviet scientists, biologists and hygiene experts having studied facts and figures revealed by a wide research, are concerned over the likely condition of many large Soviet rivers in 20 or 30 years. They are calling for drastic action now to stop the thoughtless dumping by factories and plants of waste products and for long term planning to embrace all branches of industry and public health organisations. The urgency of the campaign has emerged clearly since the beginning of this year, probably because one statistic revealed by the research is that waste-product dumping is damaging the Soviet fishing industry to the extent of nearly £lOO million. The newspaper, “Literature and Life,” which has carried several articles on the subject, flatly declared recently: “Our rivers and lakes are becoming dirtier and dirtier. Fish and vegetation is perishing. The health of the people is in real danger. And all this is taking place because sanitary laws are being violated by too many administrators." The newspaper argued that the whole root of the trouble was the “so-called norms" providing for the “maximum allowable poisonous concentration.” This, it argued, is to concede that the argument that dumping waste products into Soviet rivers is necessary and unavoidable—instead of trying to tackle the problem by neutralisation, destruction and filtering.

“Literature and Life” said that the “so-called norms” should be gradually reduced and after fool-proof methods of purifying water have been found, there should be a strict ban on all dumping.