Cleaning up the water in St Petersburg

President Tarja Halonen met Governor Valentina Matvienko on a river cruise on Tuesday evening. Copyright © Office of the President of the Republic of Finland

President of the Republic Tarja Halonen attended the opening of the phosphorus removal facility at the St. Petersburg Northern Wastewater Treatment Plant on Tuesday 28 June 2011. A meeting with Valentina Matvienko, Governor of St. Petersburg, was also on the programme.

The phosphorus removal facility at the Northern Wastewater Treatment Plant was started up by President Tarja Halonen and Mikhail Oseyevsky, Vice-Governor of St Petersburg. The startup of the phosphorus removal facility was the last stage in a Finnish-Russian five-year project to reduce discharges into the Baltic Sea from the three largest wastewater treatment plants in St. Petersburg by a substantial amount. Run jointly by the St Petersburg waterworks (Vodokanal) and the John Nurminen Foundation, the project is reducing the overall phosphorus load on the Baltic Sea by about one fifth.

In her speech, President Halonen recalled that there had already been a lot of talk in Finland about the state of the Baltic Sea before the launching of the project in 2005. “People were particularly concerned about blue-green algae, which was increasing because of nutrients discharged into the sea, particularly phosphorus. ”

“Even back then, we realised that although there was plenty to do in Finland on this front, international cooperation among the countries along the Baltic Sea would also be needed. And not just between governments: in addition to the public sector, civic organisations and enterprises would also have to be brought on board. Every individual would have to realise just how important the sea is to us.”

In the evening of Tuesday 28 June, President Halonen met Valentina Matvienko, Governor of St Petersburg, on a cruise on the Neva River. Governor Matvienko applauded the environmental cooperation between Finland and Russia and how successful it has been. “The Baltic Sea is our shared home,” the Governor said. 

Copyright © Office of the President of the Republic of Finland

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