Maira Mora: Belarusian authorities have done a lot to address ecological issues

Belarusian authorities have done a lot to address ecological issues, however, laws will not work and the ecological awareness of the people will not grow if containers and modern lines to sort waste are not available at the local level. The opinion was voiced by Head of the EU Delegation to Belarus Ambassador Maira Mora at the ceremony held in the Belarusian town Mosty on 13 December to hand over a modernized waste sorting station to the local housing and utilities services provider, BelTA has learned.

Maira Mora remarked that Belarus processes 12-15% of its waste while in the European Union the figure is four times as high.

In line with the EU/UNDP project the Mosty town utilities services provider received a new sorting line, a telescopic handler Manitou with a set of mounted tools, a frontal loader for composting and managing the waste landfill, a trailed compost turner, a bucket-based sifting breaker, and three press containers. The new machines cost $390,000. Last year the local housing and public utilities enterprise received over 150 containers for the separate collection of plastic, paper, and glass waste, over 900 containers for organic waste, refuse collection vehicles to service the container, and a bulldozer for the sake of burying the waste at the waste landfill in an environmentally friendly manner.

According to Sergei Frolov, Director of the Mosty town housing and public utilities enterprise, the modern equipment will greatly cheapen the waste processing process, it will make the job of workers easier and will also improve the sales of processed waste. According to the source, in 2007 the enterprise collected 107 tonnes of secondary resources or 6kg per resident. In 2013 the figures were 311.7 tonnes and nearly 19.9kg per resident. The Mosty town administration intends to raise the waste collection figure by 30% in 2014.

Apart from that, representatives of the European Union and the United Nations Development Program presented the Green Schools program before teachers and students in Mosty. UNDP deputy resident representative Farid Karakhanov said that 50 schools in Kobrin District, Mosty District, Miory District, and Sharkovshchina District are involved in the program. The Green Schools program is meant to set up a network of schools and out-of-school education institutions that care about ecological education and the training of school students. If compliant with all the project’s requirements, an education institution can be given the Green School status. The status will be in effect for two years. After that it will have to be confirmed.

Farid Karakhanov thanked the Education Ministry and the Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Ministry for aid in implementing the project. An agreement has been reached with the Education Ministry to include the Green Schools program into the extracurricular activities in all the Belarusian schools. Courses for students and educational seminars for teachers are available. “We see that we can and should move on,” noted Farid Karakhanov.

“Belarus is a very beautiful country. It is up to you to encourage children and parents to preserve and multiply the beauty of their native land,” Maira Mora told the teachers.

At present there are about 40,000 green schools in 46 countries across the globe.