On March 21, Vitebsk /Diana Kurilo - BELTA/. Enterprises of the Vitebsk region allocated about Br500 million in 2011 for local monitoring of wastewater discharges and groundwater, the Vitebsk Regional Committee for Natural Resources and Environmental Protection informed BELTA correspondent. Currently, out of 77 nature users conducting local monitoring, 41 enterprises monitor wastewater discharges into surface water bodies at 63 observation points, and 50 enterprises monitor groundwater at the sites of harmful impact facilities at 56 observation points. All these observations are carried out at the expense of the enterprises' own funds. Local environmental monitoring is one of the components of the National Environmental Monitoring System and is carried out directly by nature users whose activities affect the environment. Here, the enterprises themselves monitor the quality of wastewater discharged into water bodies, surface waters in the vicinity of wastewater discharge sources, as well as groundwater in the areas where industrial waste landfills, large livestock complex irrigation fields, filtration fields, and municipal wastewater treatment plant sludge beds are located. The actual water consumption of the Vitebsk region is 203 million cubic meters per year. Almost 49% of water withdrawn from surface and underground sources is used for industrial needs, slightly more than 30% is used for household and drinking purposes, 10.4% is used for pond fish farming, 8.7% is allocated for agricultural water supply, and 0.1% for irrigation. Significant consumers of water resources in the Vitebsk region are housing and communal services enterprises, whose water consumption averages 40% of the total water withdrawal. There are 240 wastewater treatment facilities in the region, of which 127 discharge treated water into water bodies. 120 million cubic meters of wastewater are discharged into surface water bodies annually, including 1.2 million cubic meters of insufficiently treated wastewater.