The Government of Estonia approved today the Protection Rules of the Pandivere and Adavere - Põltsamaa nitrate vulnerable area, in accordance with which restrictions to agricultural entrepreneurs will be established. Due to its fertile soils, the area is used for breeding some 30% of all cows and pigs in Estonia. On the other hand, due to the local hydrogeological conditions pollution also spreads rapidly within the region. Although agricultural pollution is not a highly urgent problem any more elsewhere in Estonia, drinking water is polluted to date in those areas with highly intensive agriculture. The situation would be improved by meeting elementary environmental requirements. According to the Protection Rules, specific water protection measures should be taken for limiting environmental pollution in nitrate vulnerable areas. Those measures include construction of manure storages meeting relevant requirements, use of best available technologies for manure processing and spreading, as well as use of techniques suitable for protection of water bodies and ground water. Most of the agricultural producers have been made aware of the water protection requirements through regional water protection plans established a few decades ago. To date, boundaries of areas with less protected ground water have been marked digitally on the cadastral base map. The owners of arable land with land use restrictions are subject to reduced land tax. The relatively largest water protection oriented costs are necessary for construction or reconstruction of manure storages of agricultural entrepreneurs, as well as for obtaining of environmentally sound spreading and sowing machines. According to expert assessment, a total of approximately 700 million Estonian kroon (equivalent to some 44.7 million EUR) will be required for bringing manure storage practices within the nitrate vulnerable area in line with the relevant requirements. The nitrate vulnerable area includes parts of the Järva, Jõgeva, and Lääne-Viru Counties (in central Estonia) with a total area of nearly 4500 km2 - roughly one tenths of the Estonian land area. In comparison it can be mentioned that the territory of area defined as nitrate vulnerable in Denmark is just slightly less than the total land area of Estonia since the Danes assessed their whole country to be nitrate vulnerable. In Finland, too, the whole country has been defined as nitrate vulnerable. |
