People protesting against chemical factory construction

• 8.02.2008, 8:43

Dwellers of village Druzhny (Pukhavichy District, Minsk Area) collected more than a thousand of votes against construction a crop protecting agents factory and sent them to the President’s Administration.

As villager Maya Paulyuchenka said to BelaPAN, the local authorities decided to allocate a site for ZAO “Avgust-Bel” (owned by Russian company “Avrust”) to perform design works on construction crop protecting agents factory.

The factory is supposed to produce toxic chemicals, pesticides, herbicides for agriculture, and recycle expired fertilisers from all over Belarus. The factory is to be constructed near the thermal power station-5. According to M. Paulyuchenka, the allotted site is being fenced, though permission hasn’t been received yet.

As ecologist Katsyaryna Hancharova, representative of public organisation “Ecodom,” said to BelaPAN, the world practice shows the construction of such objects can lead to unpredictable consequences. So the pesticides production can cause dramatic growth of allergic, oncologic, lung and other diseases.