Finnish Minister of the Environment visits new Russian oil port and St. Petersburg
On Sunday, September 5, 2004, Mr. Jan-Erik Enestam, Finnish Minister of the Environment, will visit the Vysotsk oil port (Fi. Uuras) in the vicinity of Viborg in the Leningrad area. The port is owned by the Lukoi company and is the most recent of the new export ports for oil and oil products. The Vysotsk port was officially inaugurated in June and will, at the first stage, have a capacity of about four million tonnes annually, later to reach over 10 million tonnes. The Minister will discuss port and maritime transport security with representatives of the Leningrad area administration and the Russian authority for maritime security.
On Monday, September 6, Minister Enestam will visit the south-western wastewater treatment plant now being completed in St. Petersburg. The building has proceeded according to plan, and the plant should be ready by August 2005. The new wastewater treatment plant will treat effluents from about 700,000 residents in accordance with the recommendations of the Baltic Marine Environment Protection Commission (HELCOM). Calculated project costs total €197 million, with the money coming from international loans, subsidies, capital investments and local financing. Finland's support to the project amounts to €10 million.
The Finnish Ministry of the Environment has an agreement with the St. Petersburg water utility Vodokanal on cooperation until the year 2007. Considerable investments are still needed to improve the treatment of the St. Petersburg wastewaters. For one thing, the untreated wastewaters still conducted to the Neva river should be channeled to the wastewater treatment plants; also, the northern wastewater treatment plant should be served by a collection tunnel, and the operation of the wastewater treatment plants should be made more efficient. In order to promote investments, Finland is financing a study aimed at a cost-effective and prioritized investment programme for Vodokanal.
The Minister's programme will end with discussions with the St. Petersburg Environment Committee. The talks will deal with technical assistance projects, cooperation focusing on the Gulf of Finland, the hazardous waste treatment plant in Krasnyi Bor, and continued nature protection cooperation.
Early in the afternoon, Minister Enestam will meet leaders of the City of St. Petersburg and of the federal district of north-western Russia. The Director General for the St. Petersburg water utility Feliks Karmazinov will be nominated Commander of the Order of the Finnish Lion, in recognition of his long-standing work for the protection of the Gulf of Finland, in cooperation with Finnish enterprises and other actors. At the same occasion, a Red Book for St. Petersburg will be published, compiled in cooperation between Finland and the City of St. Petersburg. The Red Book will considerably contribute to the protection of threatened species and their habitats. The book proposes, among other things, 17 new protected areas in St. Petersburg, in addition to the present six.
For more information please contact
Consultative Counsellor Martti Poutanen, phone 050 3006 379