Robert Horvat: Solving environmental problems takes joint efforts of several regions

On November 30, on the initiative of the chairman of Chop City Council, in cooperation and with the support of the heads of Velyky Berezny, Volovets, Mizhhirya, Irshava, Tyachiv, Bushtyno, Storozhnytsia, with the participation of Perechyn, Solotvyno councils, the Ecological Forum "Chop – ECO 2016" was held in the westernmost city of Ukraine.

Also, the forum was attended by the Consul General of the Slovak Republic in the city of Uzhgorod Janka Burianova, the consul of Hungary in Uzhgorod Loppert Balazs, the commercial attache of the Consulate General of Hungary in Western Regiona Beata Mul, the primator of the city of Spišská Belá Štefan Bieľak, his deputy Jozef Kuna, Member of the Parliament of Ukraine Robert Horvat.

Chop Mayor Valeriy Samardak, opening the event, outlined three major problems of the city: waste removal and disposal, drainage and water supply. In addition, he told about the steps being made to solve them.

The consul of the Slovak Republic Janka Burianova noted that the event was attended by representatives of the settlements located near the border who want to solve environmental problems together.

The primator of the Slovak city Spišská Belá Štefan Bieľak told about the project for the construction of the treatment plant in their city and said that the main driving force was the desire of the community to implement it. Thanks to their efforts, they managed to raise 75% of funds from the EU, 20% from the government and only 5% from the city budget.

Member of the Parliament Robert Horvat also spoke on the organization of such forum in the border town: "It is very important, because people met and discussed the issue. I hope that the forum was beneficial for everyone. I think that in the future such events will be organized more frequently and not only at the city, but also at the regional level. In addition, it is necessary to invite members of the Danube and Carpathian regions. As of today, we, unfortunately, have not been very successful in obtaining grants that can be implemented on our territory for the construction of sewage treatment plants, waste treatment plants, generally for anything that will help our environment."

Finally, the participants considered the Charter of Carpathian Initiative "For clean environment" and were invited to the next forum on water supply to be held in late January – early February 2017.