Chernivtsi’s historic center in danger

CHERNIVTSI — After the disastrous flood in 2008, Chernivtsi oblast found itself in big trouble again as a large landslide occurred in Chornohuzy, a village in Vyzhnytsia raion. Dozens of homes collapsed, sank under the surface of the earth or suffered such damage that they have become absolutely unfit for living in.

A whole rural neighborhood was rebuilt under President Yushchenko’s personal supervision. Before fall people had moved into new comfortable homes built in a place deemed safe by geologists, no far from Chornohuzy.

This year, however, another landslide took place in a different part of the village and Volodymyr Klym, chairman of the village council, says another landslide will wipe out the whole village if the emergency management authority takes too long getting the situation under control: “Buildings started running cracks toward the end of winter, when the snow started melting. After the recent [heavy] rains it got worse, with the land shifting to the site of the first landslide back in 1998. Geologists say the site covers 80 hectares. Some land stabilization was done, but on only 10 hectares, for want of funds. We’re worried that this year’s landslide is caused by a large subterranean lake under the hill by the village. We first learned about it under the Soviets, when they wanted to build a military airfield at the neighboring village of Bahna. The construction project was canceled because the place was recognized as geologically unsafe. Other facts confirm the story about the lake under the hill. For example, there were no rains last summer but big springs continued running from that hill. Should this body of water move with a quake (this region sometimes records 7.0 on the Richter scale) or spills over under heavy rains, Chornohuzy will go under. On behalf of the local community I sent a letter to the local and central authorities, the Emergency Management Ministry, demanding satellite photos to ascertain the size and depth of the underground lake and its proximity to the village.”

Says Oleksandr Romanov, deputy head of the Emergency Management Directorate, Chernivtsi Regional State Administration: “The area of the landslide on the 1998 site isn’t large, so that only five village homes may be affected. This hill is said to have been formed by layers of pebbles. True, this stone mass is very unstable and saturated with water. The commission that investigated the landslide believes rains weren’t the only factor that triggered the slide, but also unauthorized artificial ponds at the foot of the hill.

According to Deputy Governor Frants Fedorovych, head of the regional commission on anthropogenic safety and emergency prevention, the situation with Chornohuzy and other landslide risk areas in this region requires additional investigation. In fact, after last year’s drought this year’s heavy rains have provoked landslides not only in Vyzhnytsia raion. They triggered the 1995 landslide in Chernivtsi, which threatened to destroy part of the city’s historic center at the time and cut short railroad communication between Ukraine and Romania.