28 August 2003, 22:45
Kuban ecological organizations has launched campaign against construction of port "Zhelezny Rog" in Taman
The first group of ecological activists of the Social and Ecological Union of the West Caucasus, the "Atshi" Movement, and the Independent Ecological Watch of the Northern Caucasus appeared in the village of Taman in the Temryuk district of the Krasnodar region in the middle of August. The Independent Ecological Watch of the North Caucasus alleged that those actions had revived the protest campaign which had been started on the Taman peninsula in 2002 by several ecological public movements against the construction of the ammoniac terminal by the corporation "Togliattiazot". Unlike the protest campaign of the previous year, the principal methods of this campaign are not direct actions but an informational and formal impact, close cooperation with the local population, meetings and pickets.
Right upon the start of the campaign, another goal was added to the original one: to prevent the construction of the petrochemical port "Zhelezny Rog", which, like the ammoniac terminal, is planned to be located near the village of Volna. Ecological activists believe that these projects are going to endanger greatly not only Taman but also the whole Black Sea as they would increase the transportation of dangerous cargos across its water area. A large tanker wreck in the Black Sea with its limited possibilities of self-purification will become an enormous ecological catastrophe.
A meeting of protest against the ammoniac terminal of the corporation "TogliattiAzot" and the port "Zhelezny Rog" will take place in the center of Taman on August 31. The meeting will be organized by the Social and Ecological Union of the West Caucasus, the "Women's Council" of the Taman village, the local organization of the Russian Communist Party and other public organizations of Taman.
