A natural disaster leading to numerous victims took place
in some parts of the Krasnodar Area (southern Russia) yesterday
and today. The YABLOKO party expresses condoles to the relatives
and next of kin of the victims.
Resort city Gelindgik and Novorossiysk suffered from the
disaster, but the most affected was the Krymsk Area with the
highest number of victims. The tragedy was caused by torrential
rains leading to a flood which inundated a large number of
settlements. However, in the case of Krymsk and Neberdzhayevskeya
village the tragedy was caused not only by weather conditions
but also the actions of the authorities who had not taken
the necessary precautions to prevent the disaster.
As was found out by the activists of the Krasnodar branch
of YABLOKO, the dramatic lifting of water in the Krymsk city
last night was caused by an emergency discharge from the Neberdzhayevsky
water-storage pond situated in the mountains above the city.
The population was not alerted about that discharge which
became one more reason for the tragedy.
In addition, this water-storage pond has been exploited in
such conditions for many years already, which preconditioned
a possibility for a catastrophe of that kind the water storage
does not have a controllable low discharge. There is only
an upper flood water discharge. Consequently, in case of abrupt
rise of water during precipitation there is no possibility
for a gradual discharge of water. In 2002 Krymsk was flooded
for that reason. Krymsk residents appealed to authorities
and mass media about the threat of flooding of the city by
the waters from the Neberdzhayevsky water-storage pond, but
the authorities did not adopt any effective measures for solution
of the problem and protection of Krymsk residents. Unfortunately,
the worst apprehensions of the city residents became a reality
last night.
We demand that:
the Investigative Committee must open a criminal
case in accordance with the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation,
under Article 293, Part 3 (negligence of officials resulting
in the death of people) and bring to justice the officials,
in particular the federal and regional heads of the Civil
Defence and the Emergency Situations
Ministry Department of the Krasnodar Territory and the Krymsk
District who:
1) did not adopt measures for safe functioning of the Neberdzhayevsky
water-storage;
2) did not inform the local residents about the threat of
water inrush in connection with heavy rains.
the President of the Russian Federation should
1) consider the liability of the heads of the Environmental
and Engineering Supervisory Authority and other federal and
regional legislative agencies in charge of safety of hydraulic
facilities,
2) demand from the legislative agencies to begin immediate
audit of compliance of all the constructions in the Krasnodar
Territory and across Russia to the safety standards.
Russia's Council of Ministers and the Krasnodar Territory
administration must provide the following:
1) worthy payments to the families of the victims;
2) subsidies for housing repairs and restoration of damaged
property;
3) adequate compensations to the residents for the lost property.
Sergey Mitrokhin,
Chair of the YABLOKO party
See also:
Human
Rights
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