You're reading: Olga Kryzhanovska and Sabra Ayres pour cold water on each other's theories as to whether it's safe to swim in the Dnipro

Hey Yankees, the Dnipro is good for you

While spending time on a beach with my American friends on a hot summer day, I suddenly discovered a startling thing about my Western pals who often tease me for my reluctance to sit on concrete benches or guzzle ice water. My ex-pat friends would rather die of sunstroke than be refreshed in the Dnipro River. Why? Because, they say, the river is dirty. Naturally, this hurt my feelings. I've been swimming in the Dnipro since I was 5, and so far, I haven't experienced any irreversible mutations.

I don't claim that the Dnipro is sterile clean, and I actually admit that some areas of the river look dirty, just like any other river in the world. Of course there is algae, fish and other things living, dying and decaying in its waters. But can these natural river substances be more harmful than the chlorine in sterilized swimming pools?

What we don't have in the Dnipro is industrial wastes polluting its waters. This is a fact that has been confirmed by the Environmental Protection Ministry. Ever since Ukraine's economy took a nosedive a few years back, the ecology of this country improved dramatically. That's our silver lining. Can Americans say the same about their natural environment?

Still ex-pats refuse to accept the fact that Ukrainian rivers are cleaner and safer than their streams. Their fear to step into our water here is almost supernatural. While they don't mind living just 100 kilometers from the site of the world's worst nuclear accident, ex-pats are convinced that swimming in Ukrainian rivers or lakes will lead to immediate death. They sweat and shake nervously watching thousands of local kids swimming and diving into the Dnipro. It's as if they expect the kids to start screaming in agony.

Last year the Post ran an article about Kyiv's lakes being polluted and contaminated with nasty bacteria. No one denies that area lakes are in bad shape. Yet this is because lake water is still and stagnant. This is not the case with rivers where the water is constantly rushing. Every school student can explain that phenomena.

This spring, while traveling down the Dnipro on a yacht for almost a week, I had a lot of contact with Dnipro water. I cooked with it; I brushed my teeth in it; I washed my dishes in it. I would even drink a big giant tumbler full of it just to prove to all Kyiv's ex-pats that to be afraid to swim in the Dnipro is a ridiculous superstition worse than believing that sitting on concrete or drinking iced Coke makes you sick.

Olga Kryzhanovska

Sorry, I don't swim in sludge

Granted, on a hot steamy day in Kyiv, the thought of a quick dip in the Dnipro sounds inviting. And no, you probably aren't going to turn green and shrivel up and die if you do swim in it. Chernobyl was perhaps not the best thing that could have happened to the waters here, but it is only one of the factors that deters me from jumping in.

I avoid that mess of a river because just looking around the trash-ridden beaches is enough to scare any panting ex-pat from a dive in the Dnipro. Despite the algae and fear of radiation, getting in the green water is almost impossible due to the broken vodka bottles that are strewn around the beaches. For some reason, Ukrainian picnickers seem to think that the nearest bush is a better trashcan than anything else. And isn't it convenient to get totally wasted and leave your vodka bottle where you finished it for some innocent barefoot kid to rip his foot open on?

Besides the fact that the river is riddled with bottom-feeding fish gobbling up radiated munchies, most beaches in Ukraine are totally filthy. So even if most of the fish were killed off after Chernobyl, the rest of those poor guys are going to die from suffocation when they get trapped in a floating plastic bag that has been tossed into the river by a drunk.

Having spent two years in a small town on the banks of the river, I know that the Dnipro has twists and turns in its course that are beautiful and scenic from the bow of a boat. Green embankments rise from sandy cliffs in some of its wider sections, and the scenery can remind anyone of a Mark Twain novel.

But getting closer to the beaches themselves, it becomes obvious that Ukrainians seem to have no respect for their natural areas, if not evident by the trash deposits visible everywhere.

Chernobyl is one thing. Watching trash wash up on shore is the reason the river is unappealing to me.

And Olga, jeez. You brushed you teeth in the stuff? How did you manage not to choke on the ketchup labels?

Sabra Ayres

Do you have an opinion about swimming in the Dnipro? Send us your response by July 4 to [email protected]. The writer of the best response will win business lunch for two at Evrika. Please keep responses to 200 words. The last winner was Sergey Kovalyov.