Eco-solutions: Ukraine works towards road map for solving toxic contamination of lands due to war

In Ukraine, efforts are being made to create a roadmap to address the issue of contamination of Ukrainian land with hazardous substances caused by war. 

The Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources reported that.

What is the problem?

During hostilities, the ground suffers not only from fragments of shells, bombs, or ruptures left by ammunition.

^{The destruction caused by the explosions in the fields is massive – you can see for yourself in the pictures of the Izium district in the Kharkiv region, where there are approximately 500 visible shell explosions.}

When one kilogram of explosives explodes, it releases tens of cubic meters of toxic gases like sulfur oxide, nitrogen oxide, and carbon monoxide into the air. These gases eventually come back down to the ground through acid rain, which changes the soil's pH and can harm plants. This means that the soil is the last element affected by the chemicals from the explosives.

Soil rehabilitation at shelling sites consists not only of demining but also of further cleaning the land from other chemical elements that remain after the war. A soil analysis is necessary to determine the content of heavy metals in the shelled fields, and only then can the appropriate measures be chosen.

What is the solution?

According to the ministry, a recent work meeting focused on addressing the issues of rehabilitating Ukraine's soil ecology. Attendees included representatives of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and scientific personnel from the D.K. Zabolotny Institute of Microbiology and Virology, part of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.

The scientists informed about the condition of the soils based on studies in the liberated territories about the effects of toxic substances on fertility and the high risk of degradation processes in the soil's humus layers.

How does it work?

"During the meeting, we discussed the prospects for application and a possible action strategy for restoring the ecological state of Ukraine's lands. It is necessary to assess the damage to Ukraine's soils and create an electronic map base.

It is already necessary to form a road map to solve the issue of soil contamination with toxic substances after conducting military operations on the territory of Ukraine," Olena Kramarenko, Deputy Minister of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine, said at the meeting.

^{Photo: Latifundist.com}

Scientists introduced a method for cleaning soil through biological means involving:

• the use of specially developed organisms to break down toxic substances in contaminated areas;
• and the cultivation of phytoremediation plants to slowly eliminate harmful substances and restore agricultural land.
• Biotechnology is safe for the environment and people, in particular, it:
• practical for various types of pollutants,
• scalable,
• economically feasible for gradually removing harmful substances and cleaning agricultural lands.

For reference:

A new Environmental Impact Assessment Register has been launched in Ukraine on the national online platform, providing current information on the state of the environment.