Chelyabinsk is the first city in the Southern Urals to receive a green belt

Chelyabinsk will be the first city in the Southern Urals to have a green belt. Work on the project has been going on for several years, TASS reported with reference to the press service of the government of the Chelyabinsk region.

The Green Belt is a zone of limited nature use with forests, water bodies and natural landscapes.

As specified in the regional administration, the ecozone of the regional center will include the territories of the Chelyabinsk and Kopeysk urban districts, Krasnoarmeisky and Sosnovsky districts, as well as specially protected natural areas (Chelyabinsk (urban), Kashtaksky, Uzhovsky pine forests), lands of the forest fund of Krasnoarmeisky, Dolgoderevensky, Kremenkulsky, Smolinsky, Etkulsky forest areas.

On these lands, it will be forbidden to cut down trees, as well as to build, with the exception of social and recreational facilities, as well as certain infrastructure.

The Governor of the Chelyabinsk Region, Alexei Teksler, commenting on the initiative, noted that the green belt project will protect the forests of Chelyabinsk and will allow the return of industrial areas to the residential development zone with the necessary landscaping. He added that this program sets the vector for the further development of the metropolis.

The decision to create a green ring was made against the background of the aggravated environmental situation in the city. This is due to the fact that Chelyabinsk is an industrial city with a large number of factories. Back in 2017, the governor of the city, Boris Dubrovsky, announced that the ecological possibilities of Chelyabinsk were actually exhausted, as TASS wrote. In the 2020 State Report of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Ecology, it was noted that the volume of harmful emissions in Chelyabinsk increased by 13% compared to 2019.

Many residents of Chelyabinsk and the surrounding villages have permanent health problems due to the lack of clean air and polluted soils. Complaints about rashes, allergies and respiratory diseases have long been commonplace here.

Chelyabinsk is one of the ten dirtiest cities in Russia, according to the SuperJob rating, compiled by a survey of residents. The top 10 also includes Ryazan, Togliatti, Astrakhan, Lipetsk, Volgrad, Saratov, Krasnoyarsk, Omsk, and Novokuznetsk topped the rating.

The Ministry of Natural Resources reported that in addition to Chelyabinsk, the most polluted air was noted in Magnitogorsk, Nizhny Tagil, Bratsk, Norilsk and Novokuznetsk.

According to the decree of Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Clean Air federal project, emissions in these cities should be reduced by at least 20 percent by the end of 2024. Taking note of the alarming statistics, Rosprirodnadzor last November proposed a 100-fold increase in fees for the negative impact of enterprises on the environment.

Cover photo: Unsplash / Danil Moiseev