Donetsk, Aug 31 – DAN. Mine water management in abandoned mines across the DPR is controlled and poses no threat to environment, the Ministry of Coal and Energy told DAN.
Vitold Fokin, deputy head of the Ukrainian delegation to the Minsk talks, said in an interview to Strana.ua that Donbass is on the on the brink of an environmental disaster as mine drainage an devastate rivers, lakes and get into the Azov and Black seas. He said that the aftermath "may surpass that of the Chernobyl catastrophe".
"There is no threat of flooding, the situation with water pumping systems is under permanent control," the DPR Ministry's official said.
"The situation is stable, without any cataclysms. The country is constructing a network of water-removing systems with submersible pumps from scratch. After the construction is finalized, they are guaranteed to maintain safe and sufficient drainage removal."
Currently 11 water-removal systems are operating in the DPR, one of them is installed at Olkhovatskaya mine in Enakiyevo. Similar systems are set up in Bulavinskaya and Lenina mines in Enakiyevo and Gorlovka, correspondingly, start-up work and adjustment works are ongoing.
Five modern systems are to be installed in Kalinina mine (Gorlovka), Krasnyi Profintern and Krasnyi Oktyabr (Enakiyevo), Sovetskaya and Lenina (Makeyevka).
Until the construction is finalized, the mine waters are pumped out by existing systems of coal mining enterprises.
"Basically, we are creating a hydro defense shield against mine drainage flooding. Currently 10 of the 11 systems are installed underground, staff is working underground, they go down where the pumps are located and the water is pumped up. The new systems have underground pumps and tubes and above-the-ground management center, people do not go underground," the interlocutor said.
The new systems are constructed in mines with locally lowest coalfaces where water from other mines is collected.
"We file reports with the DPR Head once in two weeks concerning the risks, ecological situation, flooding. This issue is controlled not only by the Ministry."*ot