Reclamation of 100 hectares of landfills will be carried out in the Arctic under the "Clean Country" project

This will improve the quality of life of more than 700 thousand people, according to the Minister of the Russian Federation for the Development of the Far East and the Arctic Alexei Chekunkov

Landfills with a total area of 100 hectares will be reclaimed in the Arctic territories until 2024. The work will be performed under the federal "Clean Country" project, said on Thursday the Minister of the Russian Federation for the Development of the Far East and the Arctic Alexei Chekunkov at the plenary session "The Arctic in the spotlight: state policy and public interest" of the XI International Forum "Arctic: today and the future" in St. Petersburg.

“By 2024, as part of the federal “Clean Country” project, 100 hectares of landfills will be reclaimed, which will improve the quality of life of more than 700 thousand people,” he said.

Chekunkov noted that nine unauthorized dumps and three highly dangerous objects have already been reclaimed in the Arctic as part of the Ecology national project. The minister also recalled that this year the Ministry for the Development of the Russian Far East, together with the State Atomic Energy Corporation Rosatom, is developing a roadmap for lifting two facilities with spent nuclear fuel from the waters of the Arctic Ocean. "The ecological balance plays an important role for the development of the Arctic," the minister said.

Besides, the Clean Arctic project is being implemented on the territory of the Russian Arctic. In 2021, more than 1.5 thousand tons of waste was collected on it in the Arctic regions of the country - barrels of fuel, tires, plastic, and wood. Expeditions and work to eliminate pollution took place in the Murmansk and Arkhangelsk regions, in the Krasnoyarsk Territory and Yakutia, the Yamalo-Nenets and Nenets Autonomous Districts, the Republics of Komi and Karelia. Since July, more than 2.2 thousand volunteers have taken part in the project. More than 3 thousand people applied for participation, all of them entered the large volunteer reserve the next year.

Source: TASS