Residents of the Russian capital are sure that the waters of the Moskva River flowing within the city limits are so polluted that it is dangerous to rinse their hands and not swim in them. Perhaps the latter is an exaggeration, but the ecological situation is really threatening.
At the risk of life
By the degree of pollution, the Moskva River is on a par with the rivers flowing through large European cities. For example, Roman Pukalov, the head of environmental projects of the Green Patrol organization, compared the main artery of the Moscow region with the Thames. But it doesn't make it any easier for us.
In the Moskva River, an overestimated level of harmful impurities has been recorded for a long time: pesticides, oil, aluminum, mercury, ammonia, sulfates. Rufina Mikhailova, head of the drinking water supply laboratory at the Research Institute of Human Ecology and Environmental Hygiene, reports that these toxic substances, along with sewage, can cause a number of serious diseases in humans - meningitis, poliomyelitis, myocarditis, gastroenteritis, hepatitis - or lead to latent forms of intestinal disorders.
Representatives of Greenpeace were also shocked by the palette of toxins from the Moskva River. Their studies have shown that with regular ingestion, poorly purified water can provoke, in addition to internal diseases, a disorder of the nervous system, and in children - a slowdown in intellectual development.
To avoid undesirable consequences, sanitary doctors do not even recommend swimming in the Moskva River. A more or less favorable situation is observed in the area of the Stroginskaya floodplain and Serebryany Bor, but everything downstream poses an immediate threat to humans. One occasional sip of water can be fatal.
Eating fish caught in urban areas is extremely dangerous for health. Therefore, the overwhelming majority of fishermen who occupy the dozens of the stone embankments of the Moskva River fish out of sport. The rest are at great risk.
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Frightening experiment
In May 2017, the editors of the RIAMO online edition, together with the EcoStandart group laboratory, decided to check the water quality in the Moscow River. Samples were taken at five different points: the village of Agafonovo (about 50 km west of Moscow), Pavshinskaya floodplain, the Tagansky district of the capital, the city of Dzerzhinsky (at the point where the river leaves the borders of Moscow) and Kolomna (near the confluence of the Moskva River into the Oka).
Basic chemical analysis revealed a significant excess of hazardous substances in the last two sampling sites. So, in Dzerzhinsky, almost the entire periodic table was part of the water. For example, the level of ammonium (the main ingredient in household chemicals) there is 4 times higher than in Kolomna, and 30 times higher than in Agafonovo.
A deplorable situation has developed with the pollution of the Moskva River with oil and heavy metals. Numerous analyzes have shown that at the exit from the city, the concentration of oil products in the waters of the main metropolitan artery increases by about 50 times, heavy metals - 30 times. In drainage points, the permissible level of toxic substances is 70 times exceeded!
The Kuryanovsk and Lyubertsy treatment facilities contribute to the poisoning of the river in the south of the capital: sewage from the main industrial enterprises of the city pass through them, and they obviously cannot cope with their function.
Environmentalists are seriously concerned about the sewerage systems that go to the water intake points of the Rublevskaya waterworks. The latter provides drinking water to the west and north-west of the capital, as well as elite cottage settlements located on the Rublevo-Uspenskoe highway.
One of the main sources of contamination of the Moskva River is the abandoned Zakharyevsky quarry - a burial ground for chemicals used by the Rublevskaya water station for water purification. It turns out that Mosvodokanal simultaneously cleans and pollutes the river.
there is hope
Despite all the problems, the Moscow authorities claim that the city's main waterway has been steadily cleared over the past five years. Every year, the condition of the water in it becomes better by about 10%. This tendency is characteristic both for the Moskva River itself and for its tributaries. The improvement in the quality of sanitary services, the use of modern cleaning equipment and increased control over the volumes of discharges of industrial enterprises and wastewaters lead to visible results.
The Moscow government emphasizes that the state of the Moskva River "fully complies with the norms of the European Union countries." The mayor's office says that the day is not far off when on any section of the main waterway of the capital it will be possible to safely swim and safely fish for its subsequent use as food. But so far, environmentalists say that the Moskva River is unsuitable for bathing virtually throughout its entire length.