The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine adopted in the first reading the Governmental draft law No. 7327 "On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of Ukraine on the State System of Environmental Monitoring, Information on the State of the Environment (Environmental Information) and Information Support of Environmental Management".

Today, the functioning of the environmental monitoring system is regulated by outdated documents of 20 years ago. And most of the equipment, which, for example, is used by the Ukrainian Hydrometeorological Center, was purchased in the 80-90s.

Work on such equipment does not allow comparing the monitoring data of the Ukrainian system with the data of other countries. Some indicators cannot be measured at all due to equipment failure or its absence.

Such a monitoring system provides only a statement of the fact of exceeding the pollution indicator without analyzing the causes and consequences. Such a system cannot be the basis for making effective management decisions.

"Nowadays, it is of utmost importance for Ukraine to develop an effective system of environmental monitoring. After all, it will allow to record the real amount of damage caused to the environment and take the most effective measures to avoid further deterioration of the situation and to restore ecosystems to a safe state - both for humans and for nature," commented Minister of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine Ruslan Strilets.

According to the Minister, the draft law is among the most important documents for achieving European standards of living. This bill penetrates 18 legislative acts of Ukraine with the principles of environmental monitoring, sets a certain framework. Its further adoption in the second reading will launch an important reform in the field of monitoring all components of the environment: water, air, soil, forests, plants, animals, waste management and geological processes, etc.

Current monitoring problems that the draft law will solve:

- Environmental monitoring data are not used in the preparation of legislative and legal acts and programs.

- Information on various components of the environment is collected under separate, uncoordinated monitoring programs. This makes it impossible to compare them and form a holistic analysis of the state of the environment in the country.

- The equipment of the state environmental monitoring system does not provide measurement of the entire range of indicators, does not provide for automated collection, analysis and storage of information and its prompt provision to the main consumers.

- For example, some indicators of pollutants in Ukraine are not measured at all.

- The location and number of observation posts does not correspond to the actual location of the population and industrial enterprises.

- For example, the number of stationary air quality monitoring posts was calculated back in the Soviet times.

- Ukrainian legislation in the field of environmental monitoring is outdated and has a low level of adaptation to the requirements of EU Directives.

- All environmental monitoring data from different sources are not collected on one resource.

- The new monitoring system will meet international standards of environmental management, including the requirements and directives of the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the European Union. The monitoring system of Ukraine will be compatible with similar systems of other countries and will be integrated into the European monitoring system of all components of the environment of the European Environment Agency.

How will it help Ukrainians?

- all relevant and reliable environmental information will be available 24/7 on a single environmental platform "Ecosystem";

- you will not need to surf different websites for a long time to find out about the state of air, water, forest, radiation in your district, settlement or in Ukraine as a whole;

- data on the state of the environment in Ukraine will be available on the resources of the EU countries. The Ukrainian monitoring system will be integrated with SEIS (Shared Environmental Information System) - the environmental data network administered by the European Environmental Agency.