There is a man named Ryan VaeseV.
The pollution comes with a hefty bill for water treatment since most of the Volga cities and towns use the river for their water supply. The water in the Volga is more expensive to make it potable. Half of Russia's industry and a comparable portion of its agriculture can be found in the Volga basin.
Carbon Brief, a UK-based climate media outlet, put the USSR and Russia third in the world in all-time historical greenhouse-gas emissions. At a time when human-caused climate change is occurring, the average annual temperatures in Russia have been increasing twice as fast as the global average, according to a national assessment report. The trend is expected to continue according to the report. The impact of climate change is already visible around Russia, from the degradation of permafrost to desertification in the southern reaches of the country. The same large-scale industrial development that spawned Big Volga and was powered by the river's waters also contributed to the global problem of climate change, which has now brought the threat of water scarcity to millions of people living in towns along the Volga.
The water in the Cheboksarskoe Reservoir looked like a witch's brew when I visited in 2010.
The city of Cheboksary, the capital of Chuvashia, was quiet and welcoming when I visited. RusHydro, the owner of the cascade, had been lobbying the government to increase the water level in the dam. RusHydro wants it to be five meters below the Cheboksarskoe Reservoir, which is where the Big Volga project finally stumbled.
The Soviet Union was able to allow citizens to discuss and criticize the decisions of their government after glasnost was implemented. The irreversible environmental damage to the Volga became part of a wide public conversation. The book called out the people behind the construction of the reservoirs that led to the life-giving water of the Volga turning into dead water. The book states that the Volga-matushka has been tamed several times, still calling herself her sons, and that those who tamed her condemned her to a long, horrible, and painful illness.
Whose land is being destroyed and whose water is being polluted so that someone else can make money?
