Kharkiv residents are invited to join the eco-toloka in the Mokry Zhikhor ravine

*toloka – a gathering of the community to accomplish common tasks

Recently, a briefing was held in Kharkiv Media Hub dedicated to the public initiative to clean up the Zhikhorets River and Mokry Zhikhor ravine, where a veritable garbage dump has been formed over the past decades. The speaker was Yurii Havryliuk – an eco-activist, and associate professor of NTU “KhPI”.

According to him, the small river Zhyhorets originates from underground sources near the metro station named after O.S. Maselskyi. One of the springs that comes to the surface near the residential area is very popular among the locals – every 2 minutes someone takes water from it. During the city’s blackout due to enemy shelling, it also saved residents of the Industrial and Nemyshlyansky districts of Kharkiv.

–We started our public initiative by cleaning up this source. When we reached the source near Oleksandrivskyi Avenue, we saw a dump of household and construction waste there. Therefore, since March of this year, a small group of activists began manually clearing the ravine and the small river Zhihorets, – the speaker notes.

A few months ago, on the “My City” platform, activists organized a fundraiser to purchase garbage bags. About 1,000 such bags of waste were removed from the ravine during the cleaning.

In the future, activists hope to create a recreation area here:

-We want to create a small nature park in Mokry Zhikhor ravine. Living paths will pass here, grass, undergrowth, and well-kept trees will grow; a river with natural banks. We dream of how it will be possible to go beyond Kharkiv through it.

Yurii Havryliuk invited all interested Kharkiv residents to join the toloka, which is constantly taking place in Mokry Yar.

–With 20-30 people, we were able to collect 60-70 cubic meters of garbage. If we work as a team, we will clean this area for about 2-3 more years. If more people join us, and the local authorities provide equipment, we will be able to cope within the next year.

You can find out when the next cleaning event will take place, as well as help the public initiative financially by following the link in the Telegram channel. These funds will be used to purchase gloves, bags, and the necessary tools.

Read more: https://mediacenter.org.ua/news