Preliminary Meeting with Hot Spot Representatives

4. Preliminary Meeting with Hot Spot Representatives

In order to introduce the representatives of the facilities that were the highest priority sources of pollution identified in the Phase 1 project to the subsequent phase and describe the benefits of participation to them, a preliminary meeting was held at Yalta on October 17 to 20, 2002. 

The representatives of the Hot Spots selected for economic analysis (directors/chief engineers/technical managers) represented 5 Hot Spots from Belarus (four “Vodocanals” and one industrial site), 5 Hot Spots from Russia (four “Vodocanals” and one collective industrial site), and 7 Hot Spots from Ukraine (four “Vodocanals” and three large industrial plants). The participants of this meeting also included National Coordinators and National Hot Spot Experts (Economics and Pollution Control) from all three riparian countries, and the SLE&C Team.

Participants from Republic Belarus included:

Participants from Russian Federation included:

Participants from Ukraine included:

The two main purposes of this meeting were the following:

- Inform the representatives of the selected Hot Spots (local stakeholders) of the UNDP/UNIDO activity and goals for the identification of the respective plants for possible national investment portfolio formation, and to discuss identified mitigation measures and cost estimates; and

- Discuss the scope of future activities on the project.

Meeting between UNIDO, the SLE&C Team, National Experts and representatives of the facilities included presentations describing the assessment process, data needs and potential benefits. Discussions with facility personnel were undertaken with respect to the assessment process, data needs and the goals of subsequent work to obtain funding for implementation of mitigation measure.  Facility personnel described their facilities as well as potential mitigation measures that could require funding.  During the meeting, a brief audit questionnaire was distributed.  The completeness and diligence of responding to the questionnaire was one of the factors determining which candidate sites will be selected for the technical and economic assessment of mitigation measures.

The results of the meeting met expected outcomes including the following:

- Direct dialog with the actual stakeholders took place, providing them with information about the current project;

- Personal contacts with representatives of the selected Hot Spots facilitated the acquisition of information needed for the completion of the National Pollution Reduction Reports (identification of mitigation measures and economic analysis) and definition of a protocol for pre-feasibility analysis;

- Feedback from the Hot Spots about the identified mitigation measures was received, and

- Discussion about the selection of Hot Spots for the future detailed technical and economic assessment of environmental mitigation measures, and the stakeholders’ expectations of such an investigation.

This meeting provided a good starting point for work on the detailed technical and economic assessment of environmental mitigation measures (Phase 2 of the project).

After Yalta workshop activity included selection of facilities which are significant sources of pollution in the basin and would reflect the Hot Spots throughout the basin. Selection was based on the following  main criteria:

- Environmental impacts on local, national and transboundary waters.

- Scoring in prioritization exercise.

- Possibility of successful implementation of measures and investment possibilities. 

- Cooperation of Candidate Enterprise (based on  response to Questionnaire).

Four facilities which are significant sources of pollution in the basin were selected for this assessment.  They represented both municipal sector (wastewater treatment plants) and industrial sector (petroleum refinery and an aluminium smelter. Thus, the following facilities were selected:

- Kyiv Vodokanal:  representing large-sized municipal wastewater treatment plants;

- Smolensk Gorvodokanal (GVK): representing medium-sized municipal wastewater treatment plants;

- Mozyr Refinery: representing a combination of industrial wastewater treatment and municipal waste water treatment plants common in the basin;

- Zaporizhzhia Aluminum Smelter:  representing a strictly industrial facility. 

The Assessment Team concurred that the facilities selected by the National Committees represented the diversity of sources of pollution in the basin well.

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