by Maria Sobol

Historically, economic systems in the Chelyabinskaya province were formed on the basis of natural resources of river and lake basins. The province accommodates ferrous and non-ferrous metals industries, machinery construction and metal processing enterprises, fuel-energy and agricultural production industries, housing and utility sector that are all water intensive. The province is at top places in terms of anthropogenic load on water bodies. The main reason and mistake in the development of provincial economic systems were under-consideration of social and environmental factors and domination of material-economic goals over socio-environmental values.