By IPS Correspondents
MOSCOW, Jun 26 2002 (IPS)

Massive flooding has brought new trouble to strife-torn Chechnya, damaging structures and an illegal oil extraction industry.

Residents are returning to their damaged homes to confront new environmental and economic concerns. The flooding claimed at least 59 lives and forced thousands to flee their homes. Several people are still missing after days of flooding that followed heavy rain.

The flooding affected 236 towns and villages with a population of about 200,000, the Emergency Situations Ministry reported Wednesday. About 86,000 people were evacuated. The flood damaged 233 bridges, 945 kilometres of roads and 519 kilometres of power cables, the ministry said. In all 110 townships lost their water supply.

But the flooding caused damage beyond what would be considered ‘normal’ for a flood on this scale. It damaged an illegal lifeline for Chechens.

Following years of war, many Chechens have come to depend largely on illegal oil extraction. People risk their lives to extract oil which they refine into low-quality gasoline. By-products are dumped into rivers.

As a result Russian officials consider more than 30 per cent of Chechen territory a zone of environmental disaster. Another 40 per cent is classified a zone with an extremely unfavourable environmental situation.

Oil and gas have traditionally dominated Chechnya’s economy. But official oil production fell from 21.5 million tonnes in 1971 to less than two million tonnes in 1993 – less than one per cent of Russia’s total oil production. Much of the oil infrastructure that remained was damaged in the recent war between Chechen rebels and Russian forces.

Many oil fields are poorly guarded. These have become sites for illegal extraction and pose a constant environmental threat. There are an estimated 150 free-flowing wells in Chechnya with an output of about 30,000 tonnes a month.

Russian troops have been carrying out operations to locate and destroy facilities for illegal oil extraction. As a result, dumping of oil by-products into the Terek, Sunzha and Argun rivers has come down. But pollution levels from these by-products are still five to 12 times above acceptable limits in many of these rivers, according to official estimates.

Viktor Kazantsev, presidential envoy in southern Russia says several fuel and petrochemical facilities have been affected by the flooding. “Now the issue is to protect these facilities, including storage of toxic and radioactive substances,” he says.

The floods are having an impact on neighbouring Daghestan. Peter Postavak, director of the Daghestani Meteo Centre says oil and fuel leaks originating from the Sunzha river in Chechnya have been carried to Daghestan.

President Vladimir Putin has ordered a commission to be set up to help the region recover from damage estimated at 100 million dollars. Putin asked Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov to divert military resources for relief operations.

Cargo planes and Mi-8 helicopters in use against Chechen separatists are now distributing food, medicine and supplies to people still cut off by flooding. The military authorities say about 13,000 soldiers have been pressed into relief operations. About 900 vehicles and 24 helicopters are being used to deliver supplies.

The floods have damaged a large number of other industrial facilities. In Ingushetia an entire cement factory was washed away. Russian authorities are also struggling to contain threat of disease in flood-hit areas.

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