Over three dozen illegal dumps were cleared by volunteers during the global campaign "World Cleanup 2012: Let's Do It Together", Tatiana Yasyulina, chief specialist of the Vitebsk Regional Committee for Natural Resources and Environmental Protection, told a BELTA correspondent. The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection and the institution "Center for Environmental Solutions" held the final part of the campaign on September 15, inviting everyone to participate. Over 3,000 residents of the region responded to the call to clean the planet from garbage: schoolchildren, students, representatives of organizations, public associations, and pensioners. Joint efforts were made to clean up forest park areas, public gardens, recreation areas, and coastal strips of the Dnieper and Western Dvina rivers, and many lakes. The campaign was most active in Vitebsk, Polotsk, Glubokoye, Ushachi, Rossony, Lepel, Braslav, and Chashniki districts. For example, in Vitebsk, fifty volunteers cleared a suburban forest near the Luchesa railway station and removed over 100 bags of garbage. Candidates for public environmental inspectors cleaned the "Yuryeva Gorka" territory in the regional center. In Braslav district, 12 illegal dumps were cleared, and the "Belmont" park and the public garden in Opsa village, among others, were cleaned. In Chashniki district, 8 dumps and 6 hectares of forest area adjacent to the Lepel-Orsha highway were cleared. In Rossony district, 9 dumps were removed, and the coastal strip of Lake Rossono was cleaned. In Glubokoye district, cleanup work was carried out in the "Dolgoe" and "Dyadok" nature reserves, Zalessky Park, and the park near Lake Velikoe. "World Cleanup 2012" was launched in early January at a conference in Tallinn. -0-

BELTA