Mr Indulis Emsis, the Latvian Minister of the Envronment and Mr Anto Leikola, the Chairman of the Rozentals Society.
Photo: Aimo Ruusunen, Julki Oy
According to the Minister, the main environmental problems in Latvia go back to the period of Soviet occupation. Old factories have polluted the environment heavily, virtually no waste water treatment systems existed prior to 1990, and the agriculture has adversely affected the Gulf of Riga and indirectly the entire Baltic Sea.
Environmental issues became a prioritized field immediately after independence in 1991. One could even say, that the poor state of the environment was one of the main factors initiating the independence process!
Today, only six years after independence, most of the old-fashioned and pollutive factories have been closed down and enthusiastic work has been initiated to improve the environment. The main target areas are - in order of importance - water protection, waste management issues, energy and sustainable development. Water protection has been focused on four "hot spots": the cities of Riga, Jurmala, Liepaja and Daugavpils. After these, the Ministry is going to focus on water protection in small and medium sized towns.
Waste management has been totally re-organized. The first area of attention is the capital, Riga (1 million inhabitants), to be followed by Liepaja (200 000) and Northeast Latvia (200 000). Hazardous wastes have been collected at a few collection sites and treatment of the same is now underway.
After six years of hard work, the overall environmental situation in the country already seems better now. In solving problems, Minister Emsis emphasized the importance of international co-operation, especially with Denmark, Finland and Sweden.
The other presentations of the seminar were about nature protection in Latvia (Ms Ilona Lodzina, Vice-director of the Environmental Protection Department) and Environmental protection in the Baltic Sea Region (Mr Tapani Kohonen, HELCOMīs Secretary General).
