Discussions that took place at the national conference on the legal regulation of water relations, which started in late May in Sochi, found that effective and affordable technologies in the field of water treatment may be required for implementation this year. This was the public informed about by the Chairman of the Subcommittee on Water Resources at the Environmental Committee of the State Duma, Georgiy Karlov.

The relevant bill can be put into effect this fall, so the owners of wastewater treatment facilities need to be prepared for modernisation, renovation and transition to new water-saving technologies. These changes are inevitable after the enactment of the law, ignoring its provisions and resigning the re-equipment may fraught with significant material cost. The fee for the use of water, the treatment of which will be carried out in accordance with the requirements of the bill would be so high that it is economically profitable to upgrade the sewerage treatment plants. For those who refuse to implement water-saving technologies, payment for environmental harm will rapidly increase within a few years after the adoption of the bill. Its final level is approximately 20 times bigger operating costs. And for companies making the transition to new technologies, the fee will be minimal.

Submitted bill has already been passed by the State Duma in the first reading, which took place in 2011. After that, it “went” for discussion and approval in the regions where it was corrected by representatives of a wide variety of areas – businessmen, community organisations, environmentalists, etc. As a result of intensive discussion a variety of appropriate amendments and proposals were made. For their approval and inclusion in the bill, a special working group shall be created, which main task is to prepare a document to be sent to the second reading. In case of successful resolution of a number of operational issues the second and third reading will be held in autumn – such forecasts were made by Dimitriy Kirillov – the Director of state policy division and regulation in the field of water resources of the Ministry for the Protection of the Environment and Natural Resources of the Russian Federation. He also noted that the currently used technologies have low efficiency, since they assume a significant consumption of water resources. Modern technologies of water management can reduce water consumption several times. For reference: to produce a tonne of viscose it is needed to spend 3,000 cubic meters of water today, new technologies make it possible to reduce this number by half. The same thing happens in the agriculture – an inefficient and obsolete equipment to carry out meliorative work consumes much more water than is necessary to ensure efficient drip or fine irrigation and food crops. The list of wasteful “users” of water resources is increased by housing and public utilities, power supplies, manufacturing facilities, etc. Such water savings can be achieved not only by reducing its use, but also due to its deep cleaning and re-use in technical applications that involve new technologies. Methods of water management in areas where there is a shortage of drinking water shall be of particular concern.