In the last KW issue of the outgoing year, Iryna Shevchuk looks into how the winter eats in the municipal budgets.
According to a document of the Ministry of Emergencies, in Kyiv alone the clearing of snow could cost the city a hefty UAH 200 mn. The document directly points to factors that prompted the decision to declare a state of emergency in many regions of Ukraine, including in the nation’s capital (KW editorial). The Kyiv Committee for Technogenic and Environmental Safety and Emergency Situations declared a state of emergency when the losses exceeded UAH 17 mn as of December 11.
The clean-up in the aftermath of such an emergency situation on the regional level requires a minimum of 1% (UAH 164 mn) of the material and technical resources of the Kyiv and Kyiv oblast budgets. To deal with the situation, the Kyiv city decided to engage military cadets, students and private businesses to clear the snow. By the way, only the Ministry of Emergencies is authorized to make such decisions according to the procedures for classification of emergency situations. The committee is only empowered to submit a corresponding report upon a directive of the government. The Emergencies Ministry could not say whether such decisions were had been made on its level.
“That is the city’s decision. Far as I know, the Emergencies Ministry has made no such decisions,” said a spokesman of the ministry. Later he added that the decision was made on the level of the committee, but stressed that the ministry had no information about this situation.
The HydroMetCenter says in two weeks of December the level of snowfall in Kyiv equaled two monthly precipitation norms. That is approximately 100 kg of water per 1 sq m. Over the last week municipal services have removed 3,000 dump truck loads of snow from the city, but that amount is nothing compared to the 80 mn t of snow that is still piled up on the roadsides of Kyiv, the article says.
