On November 7, the standing committee on environmental policy of Kyiv City Council did not save the Kachyne Lake.

Last time, members of the commission, chaired by its secretary Oleksii Novikov, reached a compromise agreement that would allow saving the lake and taking into account the interests of the developer KP “Zhitloinvestbud-UCB” that has already invested substantial funds in the construction. However, this agreement was just a set of good words.

On November 7, the meeting of the Commission began with a presentation of Viacheslav Nepip, the Director of construction of residential buildings affairs of KP “Zhitloinvestbud-UCB” that is constructing the scandalous building on the Lake. The Deputy said that the company has already spent more than UAH 16 million on the preparation of the construction site. He transparently hinted that no compromise in this case could be reached. He also said that he has documents that allow construction at the site, and once again showed the document, according to which the Kachyne Lake does not exist. Mr. Nepip aroused enthusiastic applause and shouts of defrauded investors of “Elita-Center”. KP “Zhitloinvestbud – UCB” promised to give a hundred of apartments in the new house to the people.

The defenders of the Kachyne Lake had a different reaction. Olena Sapozhnikova, the lawyer of the Strategic Litigations Center of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union, reminded that there is also the expert opinion of the Institute of Water Problems and Land Reclamation of the National Academy of Science. This document argues that the water is the lake and its destruction is a crime. The chief architect of Kyiv said that the document is new for him and promised to study it.

Nina Konovalova, Deputy Chief of the Department of Water Resourses, said that the water in question is the lake, although it is possibly missing on some maps. Filling the lake by waste can lead to unpredictable consequences, even to the flooding of the surrounding buildings.

Hanna Sandalova, Deputy Chairman of the Commission, said that it is suspicious when various inspections suddenly change their opinion on the Kachyne Lake in favor of the developer. She clearly hinted the officials were corrupt.

Olena Sapozhnikova, the lawyer of the Strategic Litigations Center of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union, reminded that there is also the expert opinion of the Institute of Water Problems and Land Reclamation of the National Academy of Science. This document argues that the water is the lake and its destruction is a crime. The chief architect of Kyiv said that the document is new for him and promised to study it.

As a result of the discussions, the majority of the Deputies inclined to the decision that a compromise should look like the developer KP “Zhitloinvestbud – UCB” fills the Kachyne Lake and builds apartments, and the company also builds a school, kindergarten nearby and performs work on landscaping the nearby Zhandarka Lake. This proposal has drawn the indignation of environmental activists. The scandal led to the fact that some Deputies – committee members left the room, and there was no quorum for voting.

On November 8, Serhii Kutsenko, a public activist and defender of the Kachyne Lake, came to the reception of Volodymyr Prokopiv, the Secretary of Kyiv City Council. Serhii Kutsenko cited numerous arguments in defense of the Kachyne Lake, but the official did not want to listen to them because, in his view, the existence of this lake is not mentioned in any officially recognized documents.

“I think we are seeing the new tactics of Deputies-supporters of Viacheslav Nepip. They clearly refused a reasonable compromise proposed last time, and now going to push only solution that is advantageous to KP “Zhitloinvestbud – UCB “, Olena Sapozhnikova commented on the final meeting.

In doing so, they will meet and discuss the problem many times until the moment when the decision that satisfies the same developers will be issued. The developer using some deputies of Kyiv City Council deliberately get Kyiv residents and the Lake into the farce.

Prepared by Oleg Shinkarenko

Photo by Serhii Kutsenko