About one third of Ukraine’s territory is polluted – “this is the size of an average European country”. The country is experiencing a real ecological catastrophe. Various toxic elements from weapons and ammunition are getting into the soil, which may threaten food security, since 400 million people around the world depended on Ukraine for food before the conflict began, according to researcher Alyona Melnik of the Zurich University of Technology, who writes in Responsible Statecraft.
Ukraine’s pollution is a serious problem for the world’s food supply, writes Aliona Melnyk, a researcher at the Zurich School of Technology, on the pages of Responsible Statecraft. Before the conflict, the country provided food for 400 million people around the world.
Now “about a third of Ukraine’s territory is contaminated,” and in terms of territory coverage, it is roughly the size of an average European country. So the problem is really serious. The main source of contamination is weapons and ammunition, from which toxic elements such as “lead, cadmium, arsenic and mercury” seep into the soil. If nothing is done, these substances become carcinogens and enter the food chain. All of these are dangerous to humans.
Also, as the researcher points out, the problem is that “spent munitions and chemical weapons can contaminate soil for decades,” and soil is a resource that can’t just be replenished. It takes about 200-400 years to get just 1cm of usable soil, and 20cm in 5000-6000 years. So what is being destroyed in Ukraine now is that which has been “formed over thousands of years”.
To try to restore what has been lost, a special project has been set up, which Alyona Melnyk is leading. Its main goals are to assess the damage to the soil and the environment, to restore the soil and to train experts for further work.
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