Acting head of the Komi Republic Vladimir Uyba stated his disbelief that moving the landfill from station Shies to another place was possible. According to him, it is wrong to build landfills in a region where 80% of the territory is occupied by forests. Uyba’s recorded answers to questions of residents of the republic appeared on the head’s official public page on vk.com on May 10.
Vladimir Uyba stated the impossibility of building landfills in Komi when answering the question of Inessa Orel, the head of the Komi Publishing House Regional State Media Holding:
— You have already expressed your negative attitude towards the construction of the landfill at Shies. Tell me if there is a threat that it will be closed here but opened there.
— Let me stress this once again: there can't be any project and it can't be justified in any way, if it might cause harm to human life, people, the population, and the environment. There is no such project that could be justified. We need it, but at the same time a certain number of people will die, God forbid, or they will get sick, but we do need it [the project]. This is my principled ground. It especially refers to landfills in the republic, 80% of which is forests, wonderful Northern forests, the cleanest water, rivers. That is, nature itself forbids you to do this. So this is the approach.
Vladimir Uyba already spoke against the landfill construction at station Shies in Arkhangelsk Oblast at the first press conference with regional journalists on April 17. According to him, “there must not be any projects that can harm the environment.” At the same time, Uyba mentioned an incineration plant in Vienna which, according to him, does not cause any harm and gives «additional heat». Alexander Tsybulsky, the new acting governor of Arkhangelsk Oblast, spoke against the landfill at Shies as well.
"People are already fed up with numerous populist affirmations and promises. The people of the North demand concrete steps. More and more people are developing an understanding that the government should be judged not by words, but by specific deeds," Sergey Ilyukhin, 7x7’s blogger and environmental activist, said.
The Head of the Komi Republic was replaced on April 2 amid a coronavirus outbreak in the Republic. Mass rallies against the landfill at Shies were held in Syktyvkar and towns of Komi in 2019.
The straight distance between station Shies at Syktyvkar is less than 100 km. Residents of Komi oppose the landfill construction in Arkhangelsk Oblast. In December 2018, activists organized a 24-hour-eco-camp at Shies to inspect the actions of builders and security guards. In mid-June, construction was suspended and some equipment was removed, but eco-activists did not decamp and continued to overwatch the territory.
