Belarus

Belarus is partly located in the catchment area of the Baltic Sea. Nutrient loads from Belarus end up in the Baltic Sea via three routes: The River Vistula, which runs through Poland, The River Neman, which runs through Lithuania and the River Daugava, which runs through Latvia. The water treatment infrastructure of the country was built in the Soviet era, and in its current state, nutrients are not removed efficiently. The Baltic Marine Environment Protection Commission HELCOM has in fact estimated that if nutrient removal efficiency is improved in Belarus, it could be possible to reduce the amounts of phosphorus entering the Baltic Sea by even 1,000 – 1,500 tonnes.

Brest
 

Brest is located at the border of Poland and Belarus. The city’s wastewaters flow directly to Poland with the River Bug, which empties into the River Vistula. Large amounts of nutrients enter the River Vistula with the wastewater from Brest, as the city has more than 300,000 inhabitants and a significant food industry generating wastewater that enters the city’s treatment plant. As part of the PURE project, Brest will invest in the improved efficiency of phosphorus removal during 2011 – 2012. With these investments, annual phosphorus loads can be reduced by approximately 300 tonnes.

PRESTO project target cities in Belarus
 

PRESTO project invests in intensified phosphorus removal in four cities in Belarus: Baranovitš, Grodno, Molodetšno and Vitebsk. The aim of the project is to reduce the annual phosphorus flow of the wastewater treatment plants by approximately 500 tonnes. The John Nurminen Foundation is in charge of technical surveys and investments related to the project. In addition, PRESTO includes a training module led by the Berlin Technical University. The aim of the training module is to increase the knowhow of Belarusian waste water engineers in the field of enhanced nutrient removal technologies. Also the cities of Lida, Novopolotsk, Polotsk and Slonim participate in this section.