Governor's gift

On April 14, in many cities near Moscow, promotions will simultaneously take place against the garbage training grounds located in them. Such a large -scale campaign residents of the Moscow Region decided to congratulate the governor of the region Andrei Vorobyov on his birthday and draw his attention to the situation in which they found themselves

After the mass closing of garbage training grounds throughout the Moscow region in the summer of 2017, the load on the remaining landfills increased - the waste began to take the waste in much large volumes than before, in the vicinity of the landfills there were traffic jams from garbage trucks and an unpleasant odor. Until that moment, many residents of Klin, Volokolamsk, Kolomna and Dmitrov did not even know that they were living next to the landfill. Now they have united in a real protest movement - the whole area defend their right to clean air, demanding not just the closure of landfills, but environmental reform, and real changes.

The first shot of the new protest wave was performances in Volokolamsk in March 2018-in the twenty-thousandth city, more than five thousand people went to a rally against the Yadrovo training ground, due to the work of which, as it is supposed, the city began to drown in the clouds of fingers. No one expected that a small city was able to quickly mobilize for such a large -scale action. Although the reasons for this were - several children were in the hospital in an ambulance with severe symptoms of poisoning by decay products in the air. The Volokolamsy was quite militant - the head of the district Andrei Gavrilov received a conversation with residents on the head, and the governor who arrived to settle the situation - twice with a snowball in the head.

The example of the protest Volokolamsk was soon followed by Klin, Dmitrov, Serpukhov, Kolomna, Voskresensk, Naro-Fominsk and many other cities of Russia.

In every city, faced with a “garbage problem”, people go through the same thing: they write hundreds of appeals to which the authorities respond to the courts at best, submit applications to the courts, then hold rallies with the heads of areas, often unsuccessful. Gradually, the life of activists begins to completely reduce to attempts to close the landfills and the desire to find at least some solution. For them, this is not just a problem of unpleasant odor in the city, but the issue of the health of their children - and a vidific example of this is Volokolamsk.

Volokolamsk. Polygon "Yadrovo"

In order to understand the essence of the main at the moment of the environmental problem of the Moscow Region, the Muscovite should go to Volokolamsk - an hour and a half by train from the Riga station.

Until you visit this small city, you won’t understand why people here are so desperately and so massively (every fourth resident of the city has come to protests) fight for clean air at home. Here, a lot can impress - the queues from parents with young children in hospitals, residential buildings standing right at the landfills. And, of course, the smell.

No, in Volokolamsk it does not smell like hydrogen sulfide, as is usually thought, the landfill gas is perceived differently. The air in the city resembles the evaporation of the old pool with standing water. The smell of landfill gas is not sharp, at first it is almost invisible. He settles slowly and heavily in his head, after a couple of hours the heaviness appears in the back of his head and temples, and his eyes begin to tingle, as if the night did not sleep. The gas accumulates in closed rooms - when you go in the evening after working in the apartment, I would rather close my nose with the first cloak of fabric. Upon returning to Moscow, it seems that he had experienced a long flight.

The 26-year-old local activist Vyacheslav Ivanov says that I would not want to live in another place, although not everything in Volokolamsk is far from everything-the cinema closest to his house is closed, and almost all the sidewalks in the city are broken so that you can’t pass with a baby stroller. In March, Vyacheslav had a daughter, and since then it was the main goal to get the closing of the landfill.

Participants in the rally against the landfill of the Nucadovo Household waste on the square near the Building of the Volokolamsk District Administration Photo: Artem Geodakyan/TASS

In the city, which has become a protest center of the Moscow Region, for several months all the conversations are only about Yadrovo. This landfill is far from the largest in the region, but it was he who became the reason why the inhabitants rallied in discontent so much that their example became contagious to residents of other cities of the Moscow Region.

For several months of regular rallies, activists have become a family. Many admit that they spend more time on duty on duty than at home. During the protests, they have already become environmental protection experts - they know how much garbage comes daily, discuss where to take children, they plan further shares. So, on April 1, they organized a large racket to Moscow - about 50 motorists glued stickers with calls to close “Yadrovo” on their cars and drove the column to the capital.

The action was not without consequences. Andrei Zhdanov, one of the participants in the run, was arrested for 14 days. Prior to this, another activist, Artem Lyubimov, was given 15 days for disobedience to the orders of a police officer. Lyubimov was supposed to perform at the rally on April 1, and also engaged in the organization of the rally on April 14, but he failed to bring the matter to the end. After the arrest, Artem declared a hunger strike and through his lawyer Denis Kunaev asked his associates not to give up. After the detention, the Volokolamsy on April 14, they do not have much hopes, but still hoped to conduct it brightly to support Lyubimov.

Activist Andrei Zhdanov, who was detained yesterday during the anti -municipal rally for Moscow, the Istra City Court had just given 14 days of arrest.

Artyom Lyubimov and Andrey Zhdanov in the Istra court. We are still waiting. pic.twitter.com/fku3ZH1PPU

- Denis kunaev (@d_kunaev) April 2, 2018

Kolomna. TBO "Volovichi"

Kolomna is considered one of the most popular tourist places in the Moscow Region. To get to the Volovichi landfill, you need to drive through the historical center of Kolomna and, after the Kremlin, turn left to the road leading directly to the landfill. Seven minutes by car separate the beautiful ancient city from the mountain of garbage waste.

Until last summer, many citizens did not even know about the existence of the landfill - they did not smell yet. Residents of the nearest village united in an initiative group and were able to attract the attention of the whole area. Now on social networks of the community about the Volovichi landfill more than 18 thousand subscribers, and the site that they created is almost the most informative resource about the environmental situation in the field. Activist Vyacheslav Egorov says that since the fall of 2017 they received more than 800 “unsubscribes” from various departments. “Lebedev ( Denis Lebedev, the head of the Kolomensky district - TD ) allowed us to put cameras from our bar's shoulder. They are periodically turned off, broken, but nevertheless we were able to understand and calculate how much the waste is actually received - according to our calculations, the landfill’s power was exceeded by 20 times. Before that, they lied to us every day, ”recalls Vyacheslav.

View from above on the landfill of the Holmic waste "Volovichi" in the Kolomensky district photo: Alexander Ryumin/TASS

From the end of March, local residents are on duty in the village of Volovichi itself. They block the path of garbage trucks; From the village to the landfill, a narrow, unheated road passes, on which trucks cannot even turn around. In the protest, older people, and schoolchildren, and large families, who were given plots, participate in the protest. They intend to continue the protest until they close the landfill or at least stop bringing waste in such volumes. “When the flow of cars went, it was impossible to go. My daughter lives on the other side of the road, schoolchildren run there, and garbage trucks are rushing, ”says one of the women on duty.

Another activist, Tatyana, along with two year -old daughters also stands by the road. According to her, the girls had an allergy, they began to cough. “We do not need anything, if only they didn’t take garbage. Now we have nowhere to go, even nowhere to go out with a stroller, ”she says.

“We can’t give up, we should become an example for other cities. We can’t just go to another city and throw everything here, then everything will be the same next to Russia, ”adds the activist Anastasia.

Tatyana with her daughters photo: Anna Bobrova

It will be - until the capital and large cities will finally learn new trends and will begin separate collection of garbage, said an eco -activist, head of the Musor.net movement Denis Stark. In his book “The Way to the Clean Country”, he writes that if Muscovites sorted the waste, their organic part could be taken to composts and used to fertilize the soil. And polymers and solid garbage could be disposed of without such catastrophic losses for the environment, which are now.

Wedge. "Aleksinsky quarry"

The many children's mother Julia Fedoseeva lives in the village of Novoshchapovo, which is located only eight -hundred meters from the Aleksinsky quarry training ground, where solid household waste (solid waste) is dumped. Two years ago, the family began to notice an unpleasant odor in the air, and in the summer of 2017 it became constant. Julia says that since then they have not opened the windows at home and almost do not walk with the children on the street - what is the point, because breathing fresh air will still not be possible there. “Younger children, they are five and four, go to kindergarten - and this is my big pain. Together with other parents, we achieved that the windows would not open in the garden and that the children would not spend much time on the street. They are constantly sick, and we are with them. Coughing and headaches all the time, ”says the woman.

Julia became an environmental activist forced to be silent - she could not be silent until her relatives suffer: “We have all children and families, we tear ourselves from them and devote all our free time to our common problem. We are trying to defend ourselves. We want the authorities to hear us, and they only convince us that black is white, that there is no smell from the landfill or that the smell is harmless. But we see from our own children, on its own, that this is not so. ”

Denis Stark believes that in Russia, officials in order to take a step towards business and the population must first admit that there is a problem and that they cannot solve this problem themselves, without the help of the population and business. “All over the world it has been organized, all decisions have long been. That is, there is nothing complicated, you just need to take it and do your job well. In order for officials to fulfill their duties efficiently, they need control over them, and only society can control them, ”the ecologist adds.

A rally for the closure of a solid household waste training ground (MSW) "Aleksinsky quarry" was held on the city square photo: Anton Belitsky/Kommersant

In the fall of 2017, the court decided to suspend the work of the Aleksinsky quarry landfill due to violations. This decision was almost immediately canceled - the inhabitants of Novoshchapov did not even have time to sleep for one night without having already become familiar to the noise of unloading garbage trucks. On the same day, they gathered at the landfill to find out what happened, but they were dispersed by the police. A month later, the district police officer brought Julia a summons to the court - a fine of 10 thousand rubles was issued for the organization of an inconsistent rally.

During the year of struggle, litigation and appeals to the authorities, nothing was able to achieve anything, and Julia thought about moving. The Fedoseevs live with all the whole in a two -room apartment: Julia and her husband, children and elderly parents. They, as a large family, were given a land plot laid by law, but there was a problem here. To the field where the families are given out the land, no road and communications were carried out; For a year, large parents have been demanding at least the creation of the general plan, but nothing happens. In addition, the place that Fedoseyev went is in the lowland, almost in the swamp. “We are intensively offered to give birth to children, but they do not offer any help. But we do not ask her! - Julia is angry, - But we manage to arrange obstacles from all sides. The worst of all to feel that the authorities consider you and your children a second grade. ”

“At all the performances, our head of the district tells what wedge the tourist city, how we are building paths for 200 million and are trying to attract investments, want to turn us into“ Salzburg near Moscow ”. But the stink in the city is impossible, everyone sells housing, prices for all apartments fell by 20-30%. It is impossible to sell our housing near the landfill - many neighbors have already tried and could not. If we leave, then I will simply chill this apartment in principle, ”says Julia.

Dmitrov. TBO "NEPICE"

In Dmitrov, activists have not yet had time to rally as firmly as in the neighboring Klin. To the village of Nerino, where the garbage training ground is located, from the city of 15 kilometers, so the smell does not always reach Dmitrov. In the village itself and the neighboring village of Offiva, it smells strongly with a landfill gas. The landfill is not even fenced with a fence, around it a dense forest and several thousand summer cottages of garden partnerships.

Olga Sokolova lives in Dmitrov, and a few kilometers from "Nepaino" her daughter Natalya with young children lives. It was Natasha who told her mother about what is happening with landfills throughout the region. After the words of her daughter, Olga decided to go to Klin and Volokolamsk to look at everything with her own eyes: “I breathed in the Volokolamn air and realized that I would no longer come there without a good respirator. This is just a crime. Such a contradiction between the incredible nature and this man -made disgrace. ”

The garbage training ground is located at the highest point of the Dmitrovsky district, and the city itself is in the lowland. Olga is convinced that sooner or later the city will cover this smell and then more people will join their struggle. But so far only a small part of the population of the district knows about “NEPIE”: “You need to go down to Dmitrov from all sides, it is like a basin. We are not experts, but it is still clear that if the smell reaches the city, then it will be difficult for us to get rid of it. ”

The landfill of solid domestic waste in the village is NEPENO. Garbage truck at the entrance to the landfill photo: Dmitry Lebedev/Kommersant

Olga, even after a trip to Volokolamsk, does not understand why the district and regional authorities in the suburbs are accused of protesters of paying and a political order - as, for example, the head of the neighboring Klinsky district Alena Sokolskaya. “When they begin to say that this is all politics, I am even strange. Our people without very good reason will not go outside. We all see that this is an ecology. Just to Volokolamsk, we did not even know that the city can be filled with garbage in six months. I was most struck by how quickly this happened, ”says Olga.

In the village, Nepseyno is now almost empty, many have left, on the houses in the village there are announcements of sale. The house of the 85-year-old grandmother Nina stands at the outskirts, and from this place you can hear how the technique at the training ground works. She says that the landfill smells, but at least does not smoke - it was 40 years ago, when many left the village.

Serpukhov. Forest landfill

Residents of the Serpukhov near Moscow before the rest opposed the garbage training grounds. Back in 2011, they demanded to close the Syanovo TBU training ground, on which fires periodically arose due to non-compliance with waste storage technology. Then the area was covered with thick poisonous smoke from burning debris, although the landfill was at a distance of ten kilometers from the center. As a result, Syanovo was closed due to multiple violations, but with the new force, the Lesnaya landfill, located only five hundred meters from the line of the city, once earned.

Sysanovo-1 TBO training ground in the Serpukhov district photo: Sergey Bobylev/TASS

When a year and a half ago, the already closed landfill “Syanovo” flared up again, the municipal deputy Nikolai Pushkin decided to act. In his first education, Nikolai Ecologist - he came to the training ground once a week and wrote reports on the social network about what was happening for other residents of Serpukhov. “I have two young children, once I realized that I could not walk on the street with them - and I was scared. The abandoned landfill caught fire - and then we realized that the blessed training ground is even worse than the acting one. It will always go in the processes of decay, which lead to the release of gas and fire, ”says Pushkin. Nikolai recalls that during the fire I saw orange clouds over the landfill. “If it had been technologically fell asleep correctly, then this would not have happened,” Pushkin believes.

It is the non -evidence of the need for these changes for residents of megacities that ecologist Denis Stark considers one of the reasons for the current crisis. “All mortgages, children, schools, elderly parents. Until people themselves are faced with a problem, they are not worried about the rest of the world, ”the expert says bitterly. - In Moscow there are 10 million people who do not care that 50 children were in the hospital in the Moscow Region. It was obvious that everything would come to such a situation, but the townspeople continue to think that this is not their problem. And in the end, residents of the Moscow Region already live inside a real environmental disaster. ”

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The material uses links to publications of social networks Instagram and Facebook, as well as their names are mentioned. These web resources belong to Meta Platforms Inc. - It is recognized in Russia as an extremist organization and is prohibited.

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