Poland biggest polluter

TALLINN - During the Baltic Sea Action Summit in Helsinki on Feb. 10, the governments of Baltic Sea nations reported on the progress in their pledges to clean up the polluted body of water, amidst charges from environmentalists who say that real change was still far off, reports AFP. “We hope to get rid of the muddy waters in the Baltic Sea, to get back a clear blue sea, and no later than the year 2020,” said Finnish Minister for Migration and European Affairs Astrid Thors.

The aim of the meeting was to present a one-year progress report after the first summit, where eleven Baltic nations, as well as various institutes and organizations vowed in various ways to improve sewage treatment, to monitor or reduce nitrate and phosphate pollution from agriculture, and to improve cross-border co-operation in water management and protection.
Participants announced that 74 percent of these goals were “progressing,” while 12 percent were completed and 14 percent had gone nowhere.

Environmentalists, meanwhile, pointed out that they felt the pledges themselves would not make much of a difference, nor could any significant change be expected in just one year. “Many of these commitments were things that the countries were already doing or required to do anyway,” explained Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE) researcher Seppo Knuutila.
Knuutila pointed out that the biggest polluter, Poland, pledged to improve waste water treatment and phase out phosphates in dish soaps, two things already required by European Union directives when the country joined the bloc.

Scientists largely agree that the single biggest problem in the Baltic Sea is nitrates and phosphates from industrial agriculture, which cause the eutrophication of the sea bed, depleting the shallow waters of oxygen and asphyxiating plant and animal life.

Even if all the goals would be achieved now, the agricultural waste would not be significantly reduced. If agriculture stays the same or grows, it’s very hard to decrease the pollution by a third, which is the goal,” said Knuutila.
Finnish President Tarja Halonen, meanwhile, announced at the summit that Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin had promised his country would host next year’s summit.