There are plans to construct modern enterprises separating household waste, purchase machinery to remove waste and create new waste collection and recycling facilities, BelTA has learnt.
Eur2.5 million will be spent on the improvement of waste treatment systems in two Belarusian towns. Alexander Rachevsky, head of the international cooperation department of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection of Belarus, did not specify which towns will receive financing. “We are working on this issue, the most optimal variants are being considered. The priority regions are so far the Grodno and Brest oblasts,”he said.
Alexander Rachevsky informed that new environmental projects are to be launched in Belarus under the auspices of the Global Environmental Facility. At present, the Global Environmental Facility is busy drafting a new country program for Belarus. The program will focus on the adjustment of various economic branches to the climate change, preservation of biodiversity, disposal of persistent organic pollutants and desertification control. The Global Environmental Facility has recently considered and approved Belarus’ application for a large-scale project to raise energy efficiency of apartment buildings. “The Global Environmental Facility will allocate almost $4 million to finance these projects,”the expert said.
He added that the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection is scaling up efforts to implement international agreements. Belarus has signed 21 international environmental agreements. “We should fulfill all the requirements set out in the agreements, to do that we need considerable financial resources. Our goal is to employ not only our own financial reserves, but also to raise foreign funds,”Alexander Rachevsky said.
Any form of foreign aid should yield appreciable results. “We should clearly identify the areas where Belarus can implement concrete proposals in line with environmental agreements,”he said. Apart from the European Union, UNDP and Global Environmental Facility, the environmental funds of Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, Czechia and Slovakia have signaled their readiness to cooperate with Belarus. “These countries are ready to invest in Belarus and we should not lose this opportunity,”Alexander Rachevsky underlined.
