“Let's honestly, no one has voted for you here.” In North Ossetia, they require to close the zinc factory (and turn to Putin)

Residents of North Ossetia require the closure of the Electrozink plant, where a fire occurred on October 21 . It lasted about 10 hours and spread over an area of ​​about 4.5 thousand square meters. During the extinguishing, 38-year-old firefighter Alexander Ermakov died, about three thousand people came to his funeral. During the fire, people complained about poor health and a metal taste in their mouths, wrote the site “Caucasus-Real”; Some of the inhabitants decided to leave the city, which is why traffic jams formed on the road. On October 22, exceeding the maximum permissible concentrations of harmful substances in the air in Vladikavkaz was not found .

Protesters believe that the enterprise is the cause of diseases, including oncological ones. Such statements sounded at a rally that took place in Vladikavkaz on October 22. This was stated by the mayor of Vladikavkaz, Maharbek Khadartsev, who demanded from the Ural Mining and Metallurgical Company, which owns the "Electrozinka", to transfer the enterprise "to the Urals". “No profit justifies the harm that the plant does to residents of Vladikavkaz. What money can be measured by the pain of families in which young people die from oncology? ” He said.

In the Ural Mining and Metallurgical Company, which includes Electrozink, the words of Khadartsev were called “a very emotional statement”, which is contrary to the data of air monitoring. “There were no harmful toxic emissions of combustion products. There was nothing that could generate some harmful emissions, ”the company says. The director of the plant Igor Khodyko said that the question of closing is not worth it.

The petition to President Vladimir Putin demanding to close the plant was signed by more than 13 thousand people (at the time of publication of the text). At the rally on October 22, one of the participants also turned to Putin with a request to close the plant, saying: “We are the contingent of people who always voted and chose you.” Another member of the rally - the Ossetian singer Vadim Cheldiev - interrupted him with the words: "Besides me." “Let's honestly, no one has voted for you here and will never vote for you,” Cheldiev said to the laughter of those present.

The head of North Ossetia, Vyacheslav Bitarov, said that the plant should be environmentally friendly, and otherwise, it is closed or re -profiled. At the same time, he admitted that the fire could occur “specifically according to someone’s scenario”-“Judging by the reaction and provocations that unfolded on social networks.” Bitarov promised the protesters that he would discuss the situation around the plant with the country's leadership.

Electrocink is the largest enterprise in North Ossetia, and, according to its site , “one of the leading non -ferrous metallurgy enterprises” in Russia. In addition to zinc, the plant produces cadmes, sulfuric acid and zinc aluminum alloys; Until 2016, the enterprise also produced lead. Protests against the activities of Electrocinks periodically have been taking place since 2009 - then several emissions of sulfur dioxide occurred at the factory. In 2016, the plant decided “at the request of some residents of Vladikavkaz” to close lead production-“the most harmful” at the enterprise.

Victor Davydov