Vyacheslav Yashchenko
THE BRIDGE THAT LEADS TO NOWHERE

We're living on the edge
"Aerosmith"

The Volgo-Akhtubian bottom-land (VABL), in Southern Russia, is a very unique place. We can endlessly sing odes to the sky praising its beauty and benefit, but unfortunately many people are not aware that at the same time we are condemning our favorite place to a future of degeneration. The worst aspect of this problem is that it is our own fault.
What do we lose here apart from ordinary mushrooms and crayfishes? The VALB is an important part of the ecological biosphere foundation that actively biota and oxygen. The swamp area of the VABL is a fundamental core of this ecological system and has a biological reproduction rate, which is twenty times higher than the neighboring steppe and semi-desert region. Hundreds of kilometers of inundated meadows of the bottom-land, from Volgograd to Astrakhan, provide for the existence of numerous reservations that are important for the biosphere.
International Importance
The swamp area of the VABL was given the status of International Importance by the international scientific community, at the Ramsar convention (International Bureau Studying Waterfowl and Water-swamp areas of the World Nature Fund). The Astrakhanian biosphere reserve was organized according to the UNESCO program "Person and biosphere". Approximately one-fifth of the swamp areas territory is in the Volgograd district. And we can rightly be proud of this fact.
But how long can we be proud of what we have, when what we once had and what we have now are two very different things?
The first problems arose tens years ago with the construction of the waterpower station and hydrological situation, resulting in extensive erosion and pollution in agricultural regions.
People took wide and reckless steps into their future. People took no notice that VABL is a fragile world. The irregularities in the ecological regime produced by the waterpower station and the damming of vast territories of bottom-land resulted in considerable degradation of the environment. Floods stopped bringing natural fertility to the region. The transit of water through systems of creeks and ponds was broken. Siltation began, as well as eutrophication of the pools. Meadowy soils were exposed to salinization. The biota of the VABL became a place that yielded as low as biota of steppe and semi-desert.
The fall of natural fertility in agricultural lands resulted in a higher use of fertilizers, causing an abrupt rise of soil and water pollution. Now we can see the result of that; the quality of agricultural production went down, fish supply was reduced, the quality of hay went down, and so on.
The growing of the population and of the towns led to a rise of territories with the highest degree of human impact on VABL.
The VABL is on the verge of disappearance. The human impacts will not allow the VABL to reproduce its resources in full. Our bottom-land is dying!
What are we doing to save it? Instead of trying to give it new life, we are strangling it with our own hands.
Our district government, with loud applause, reported that they ready to build the bridge across river Volga; its length will be 21 km. The bridge will be very expensive. The wide highway on the bridge will have to go through the VABL. There will be new misfortunes. Soon lands will be expropriated for the construction of the highway. Dams will break the water regime, which is already poor. There will be more transport on the road. New settlements are expected, and industry. All with bad consequences for the VABL. We only have to wait for the population health to get worse. Our lives will get shorter and sadder.
So we are on the edge of a new local ecological catastrophe. It is nearby! It is inevitable!
To prevent disaster and to protect our VABL, we must support the idea of creating a forest reserve in the VABL. And let us think: do we need the hell-bent idea of the construction of a bridge that leads to nowhere?!