Translated material
Coal price
As the expansion of coal mining in Kuzbass destroys the traditional way of life of the indigenous people
The south of the Kemerovo region is gradually turning into one large coal incision. Under the onslaught of heavy equipment, the taiga retreats, leaving behind black multi -kilometer funnels. The inhabitants of the villages adjacent to the cuts swallow coal dust and can not get used to living to the sounds of explosions. Not so long ago, the ring of cuts almost closed around another village - a dude. Local residents picket the administrations of coal companies, complain to the authorities, appeal even to international law, but alas. Coal production in an open way continues and will probably gain momentum.
The village of Chuvashka is a place of compact residence of the indigenous people - Shors. More recently, one of the most picturesque corners in the south of the Kemerovo region. In recent years, the landscape has changed here. When you drive up to the village, you first see the top of the mountains cut off with a knife. The dude on three sides is surrounded by coal mining enterprises: cuts of the Criminal Code of the South, Kiisass and Siberginsky. Today, four more areas are exhibited for auction, and probably the ring of cuts around the village will soon become closed.
And now, when these explosions are constantly heard in the section, I also feel bad. My house gives a shrinkage and cracks from explosions
- We are destroyed to the end. How to survive? -The 71-year-old resident of the village of Valentina Boriskin is outraged. -I was born in the village of Shodovo, this is higher along the River of Bras-Su. I live in a dude for only 21 years, but all my roots are from here. My husband and I decided to return to his homeland in the 90s. Then, in 1996, they said that the village will be built, there will be a school, a kindergarten, a nursing home, a bakery, some enterprises. We were glad that the village would grow, that it would be possible to live. And now I am sure that he has no future.
I remember in childhood, as soon as a thunderstorm came, thunder, lightning sparkled, it seemed to me that this war began or the end of the world. I played with anyone, immediately ran home and hid under the bed, or put my head under the pillow. And now, when these explosions are constantly heard in the section, I also feel bad. My house gives a shrinkage and cracks from explosions. And representatives of enterprises say that they do not exceed the norms. We do not have normal drinking water, and go to the spring 1.5 kilometers. They drop dirty water into the River of Bras-SU, because there are no sumps. You cannot take water from the river. From the column it is smelly, technical. How to live?
Chuvashka Shors used to call Ustyung Aaal (upper village). Here they lived long ago, traditionally engaged in hunting, fishing, gathering.
The Federal Law "On Guarantees of the Rights of Indigenous Littleness of Peoples of the Russian Federation" dated April 30, 1999 gives the Shors the right to apply for "the use of places of their traditional residence and economic activity in accordance with their familiar way of life." The law states: small peoples, unification of small peoples in order to protect their original habitat, traditional lifestyle, economy and crafts have the right to "freely use various categories in places of traditional residence and traditional economic activities of the small categories, necessary for their traditional economy and occupying traditional providence, and common useful things. fossils. "
However, today the Shors can not lead a traditional way of life in their native villages. Coal cuts destroy the taiga, and it is becoming increasingly difficult to engage in the habitual crafts of the shorts.
- My father is a hunter, and since childhood I was used to eating meat, hare, bear, hazel grouse. For me, the food on which I grew up. But I do not have the opportunity to eat the meat of wild animals and birds again, because they are not in the forest. In the river now the fish has almost taken off, even fry is not visible. Because deforestation, explosions, everything leads to the fact that the animals are leaving, ”says Valentina Boriskin.
Coal companies, however, consider the claims of local residents by far -fetched
“Employees of South Kuzbass regularly provide assistance to the village of Chuvashka: they clean the snow and add roads, arrange springs,” the press secretary of PJSC South Kuzbass Olga Ryabova replies to our request to comment on our request. - The company monitors the quality of wastewater, preventing the discharge of unpeeled or not meeting regulatory requirements, on a regular basis, water quality monitoring is carried out, laboratory analysis is taken. Inspections of control and supervision authorities regularly confirm the implementation of environmental measures by the company.
Only now the locals of this care of coal miners for some reason do not feel about themselves.
As soon as we surrender, the whole south of the Kemerovo region will turn into one large incision. After us, Tuleyev will stop nothing!
- Our people are sick a lot, but there is no health center. There is no school. The roads are all in bumps, the old council is old, falls apart. We need large investments that enterprises do not want to do, ”says Nikolai Denisov, a native of this village. - Chuvashka is the last village in the way of coal miners. As soon as we surrender, the whole south of the Kemerovo region will turn into one large incision. After us, Tuleyev will stop nothing!
The authorities of the region invariably emphasize that the expansion of coal production is strategically important for Kuzbass and in any case, it is impossible to curl up production.
“The regional economy survives only due to the fact that Kuzbass is now extracting almost 60 percent of all Russian coal, including 70 percent of the most valuable, coking brands - they are sold“ flying, ” says Governor Aman Tuleyev . - Scientists carry out different nonsense, they say, the harm of ecology and climate that coal must be removed, and the mines should be closed.
For two years, the Eco Protection group has been working in the region. Ecologists have summarized the results of their research in the report "Coal price". According to the organization, more than 60 percent of Russian coal and 76 percent of all coal exported from Russia to other countries are mined in Kuzbass. The total area of coal sections is about 6 and a half thousand square kilometers. In Kuzbass, there are 120 coal mining enterprises (66 mines and 54 cuts) and 52 enrichment factories and installations. Despite the fact that coal consumption in Russia is not growing, in Kuzbass in the past few years the volume of production of this raw material has been constantly increasing.
The authors of the report also talk about the serious environmental consequences of expanding coal production in the region. According to them, 93.8 percent of drinking water sources in Kuzbass do not comply with state standards. The state of atmospheric air speaks of the regular loss of black snow, which contains sulfur, potassium, manganese, nitrites, nitrates, chlorides and other substances. The air is contaminated with carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide and suspended particles.
As a result, in comparison with the average Russian indicators, the report says, the expectation of life in the Kemerovo region is 3-4 years less, mentally retarded children are born 2.4 times more, anomalies of the circulatory system in newborns are 1.6 times more often. For 15 oncological diseases, the indicators in the Kemerovo region are above the average Russian.
Imagine: there is no pure water, there are no clean products, the house shakes off from explosions, and the surrounding landscape turns into Martian mountains
- Since coal is mined by using tons of explosives, the inhabitants of the village are constantly breathing dust, which rises after the explosion and settles to the village. Wherever the wind was blowing, it almost always blows from a coal cut or from the breed dump. This dust itself is toxic for humans, it settles in the gardens, enters surface water. Coal companies poison surface waters, violate the aquifers, pollute with black, uncleaned drains from the cuts, the only large brothers river flowing through the village. Absolutely the entire crop is poisoned by chemical products from the incision. But people have no choice, and they drink this water and eat products from their gardens. Imagine: there is no pure water, there are no clean products, the house shakes from the explosions, and the surrounding landscape turns into Martian mountains. All this is because coal companies are acting extremely irresponsibly, ”says Anton Lementyev , the Novokuznetsk coordinator of the Russian Ecological Group Eco -Protection.
Nevertheless, the dude is still somehow surviving. And the neighboring village of Kazas has already been erased from the map of the district. At the end of 2012, OJSC "Criminal Code of South" began the buying up of houses and land. Five families, which did not want to leave their native places, during the winter of 2013-14, the house burned to the ground. Locals claim that the police did not investigate the work of arson. Outraged by what had happened to the Cossack, the Shor activists united in the organization "The Renaissance of the Cossack and the Shorsky People".
- The fact is that the general director of “Yuzhnaya” said before this residents of the village of Kazas, who did not want to sell their homes that they could burn housing. Or a bulldozer of the unknown he will be torn. And after these words, the first fire occurred on November 26, 2013, literally three weeks after his words. And so five fires from November to March 2014. After his words turned out to be prophetic, people suspect precisely the "southern" in arson. They wrote a statement to the prosecutor’s office, but the police did not give this business, ”says the activist of the Renaissance Vladislav Tannangashev .
In 2013, activists of the Renaissance tried to picket the local administration. They stood with posters for several days in a row for several days in a row, urging the management of the coal company to sit at the negotiating table. But all to no avail.
- Kuzbass is the only territory in our country where indigenous peoples live that do not have the territory of traditional land use. Recently, such lands were designed for themselves by the Khakassia shorts, and there are only 1,500 of them! - says Yana Tannangasheva , a member of the Renaissance. - And we need to achieve this. There is nowhere to leave and move to the shorts. The Shors lived from time immemorial on this earth, for hundreds of thousands of years have mastered it. This is our land, and we are its owners. But no one asked us if we want it. Although, according to all international laws in the territory where fossil mining is carried out, they must ask for permission from the Aborigines. And in Russia there is this law "On guarantees of the rights of indigenous peoples." And we will achieve our observance with all our means.
2017 in Russia, by the way, was declared the Year of Ecology. Shop activists hope that their voices will nevertheless be heard by the authorities. And the dudes will not repeat the fate of the Cossack, and the indigenous inhabitants of these places will get the opportunity not to survive, but to live in accordance with their traditional way.