BBC to make film about Lake Baikal

A press release of "Timber Industry Continental Management Company" says that the BBC had started shooting a documentary about Lake Baikal. The authors of the documentary intend to reflect "scientific, political and economic aspects of environmental protection." More than fifty experts are involved in the project; they are scientists, politicians, reporters, officials and activists of environmental organizations. Generally, the film will be devoted to the Baikal pulp-and-paper mill.

According to Phil Gawron, the producer of the documentary, "viewpoints of radical environmental organizations will be balanced by viewpoints of local scientists, who think that effect of the Baikal pulp-and-paper mill on the Baikal's ecosystem does not exceed one percent of all technogenic factors." A real threat to the lake is Mongolian mining enterprises located in the headstream of the Selenga River that flows into Lake Baikal.

The shooting is timed for waste disposal plants' modernization of the Baikal pulp-and-paper mill and construction of a closed water supply loop that will make it possible to reduce the effect of the mill. It is for this programme that the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development allocated a loan of 24.5 mln U.S. dollars.

Phil Gawron told Irkutsk (a town on Lake Baikal) journalists that he was astonished at the fact that the management of the mill and its press service were ready to cooperate with the shooting group.

The Association of the British Higher Education Institutions "Open University" ordered the documentary. It will be used as educational means for senior students in British universities and will be included into the BBC world popular science fund, the press release emphasizes.