For a greener Karviná region

OSTRAVA – For quite a time now, it is no longer true that the landscape everywhere in the surroundings of mines is black and devastated. „Those who haven't revisited Karviná region for a score of years tend to be in for an agreeable surprise when viewing the landscape there. Moreover, a dozen additional projects are in the pipeline, to upgrade the environment in which people live in the region,“ says Jan Slíva from the department of OKD Corporation's Manager for Recultivation.

More than CZK 300 million were expended on remediation and recultivation works last year, of which approximately four fifths were sourced from state funds within the framework of liquidation of old damages induced by mining previous to OKD's privatization. Every such recultivation project is a 'long-distance run'. „In each locality, recultivation is comprised of two parts. First of all it is necessary to remove everything that does not belong there, remodel the surface of the land, provide for drainage of the area, and relocate the utility networks; the next step consists of biological recultivation that amounts to seeding with grass, planting trees and shrubs, and giving these appropriate upkeep over a period of several years,“ Slíva specifies.

Thus, in 2008 there were 47 recultivation projects in progress, for example at Darkov, in the vicinity of the sludge tanks of what today is Lazy Works, in František area, at Karviná-Louky, or in the Stonávka riverbed.

A total of 17 new recultivation projects will be launched in the nearest future, including those in the Solecký Hill area at Karviná-Doly or within the Dolina Valley territory at Orlová-Lazy. Also important will be the recultivation works to be conducted at Barteček's Ponds and along a section of the Stonávka riverbed. A further twenty recultivation projects are planned to be launched before the year 2015.

Until the second half of last century the mining companies did not consider the impact of their activities on nature in the Ostrava region at all or only sporadically. However, OKD as a modern enterprise, is aware of its responsibility for living conditions in the region and pays due attention to them.

In the opinion of experts, the end-of-project condition of many of these areas will eventually be even better than before mining was started there, because in earlier times, the mining industry also used to be sited in many areas which already had been damaged environmentally. Thanks to stringent legislation as well as to recent developments of science and technology, all the mining-affected areas are now being returned for new use by society in a condition of environmental balance. This is also attested to by nature itself, which in stepwise fashion, has been experiencing a natural return having the form of both plant and animal species reappearing in the recultivated zones.

(Vladislav Sobol)