Who says oil and water don’t mix?
As the world gets ever nearer to going to war over such basic necessities as water, in Russia the greenlight has been given to construct a hugely controversial oil pipeline that will run alongside Lake Baikal, home to a fifth of the world’s fresh water. Transneft, the state pipeline monopoly, is proposing to build the $11 billion pipeline from Eastern Siberia to the Pacific Coast, via the Chinese border, to supply oil-thirsty Asian markets. The peipleine skirts within 800 metres of the huge lake. A panel of experts from Rostekhnadzor, the environmental watchdog, overwhelmingly rejected the plan last month on the ground that Baikal could be irreparably damaged if the pipeline ruptured. Out of 52 experts on the commission, 46 ruled that there were insufficient safeguards to protect the pipeline from the region’s frequent and powerful earthquakes. But Konstantin Pulikovsky, the head of Rostekhnadzor, refused to endorse the decision and in true Vladimir Putin style appointed an extra 34 mo
