In Irkutsk region, they discussed the acute problem of drinking water quality. According to Rospotrebnadzor, 30 percent of water consumed in the region does not meet sanitary standards, and in the Ust Orda Buryat District this figure reaches 98 percent. Main pollution sources include manure storage sites, poultry farms, industrial enterprises and abandoned wells, of which there are more than 400 in the Angara region. The meeting decided to make an inventory of wells a priority and prepare a plan to provide residents with drinking water.
On January 29, a meeting of the Interdepartmental Council on the development of the region’s mineral resource complex was held in Irkutsk. At it, the deputy head of the Rospotrebnadzor Administration for the Irkutsk Region, Alexey Perezhogin, said that in the Irkutsk Region 30% of the water consumed does not meet sanitary standards, and in the Ust-Orda Buryat Okrug – 98%.According to him, the main pollutants of aquifers are manure storage facilities, poultry farms, as well as industrial enterprises. In addition, groundwater is polluted due to abandoned wells that have not been monitored by anyone for 10-15 years.
According to approximate data, there are more than 400 abandoned wells in the Angara region. However, in cottage development areas, where every owner drills wells, it is impossible to track their use at all.
Residents of the Irkutsk Region today consume water from 346 centralized underground water supply sources, of which 41 (11.8%) do not meet sanitary standards. The main reason is the absence of sanitary protection zones and the unsatisfactory condition of the existing zones. The largest number of polluted water sources is located in the Ust-Kut and Ust-Ilimsk districts, as well as in the Ust-Orda Buryat Okrug. In addition to centralized sources, there are also decentralized ones, for example, wells and boreholes on private property. There are 2,046 of them in the Irkutsk Region. Of these, 160 do not meet sanitary standards. "The population is forced to use low-quality water," said Alexey Perezhogin. – "In the Irkutsk Region, the iron content in the water is twice as high, while the fluoride content, on the contrary, is lower".
At the council meeting, it was decided to recognize the inventory of wells as one of the priority areas, and also to draw up an action plan to provide the region’s population with drinking water.