{"id":47773,"date":"2026-10-05T15:28:54","date_gmt":"2026-10-05T13:28:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pl-ua.eu\/?p=47773"},"modified":"2026-10-05T15:35:36","modified_gmt":"2026-10-05T13:35:36","slug":"the-river-bug-unites-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pl-ua.eu\/en\/the-river-bug-unites-us\/","title":{"rendered":"The River Bug unites us"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

You see more from a kayak: not just the river itself, its current and wild nature, but also what people leave behind \u2013 plastic bottles, cans, plastic bags \u2013 litter. Rafa\u0142 Siwek, director of the Communal Cultural Centre in Drohiczyn, deeply respects nature, and the work he does with his partners in the CleanBug project began with this “river’s-eye view.” That is how it all started.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

One River, Shared Responsibility<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Bug River connects Poland and Ukraine, flowing for hundreds of kilometres on both sides of the border. Activities related to the river were the impetus for the BugUnitesUs<\/a><\/em> project (Cross-Border Cooperation Programme Poland-Belarus-Ukraine 2014\u20132020), which brought together partners from Drohiczyn and Chervonohrad. As part of the project, two kayak tourist trails were created. It was the Drohiczyn municipality’s first Polish-Ukrainian experience of implementing cross-border projects. More followed, including CleanBug: \u2018CleanBug<\/a><\/em> \u2013 joint activities of the Drohiczyn Commune and the Dobrotvir Town Council for protecting biodiversity of the Bug Valley\u2019, under the current Poland \u2013 Ukraine Programme.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I’ve been kayaking for years, and I see the same problem again and again. On the one hand, we want to develop tourism; on the other, there’s litter everywhere. As soon as the number of people using the river grows, the litter appears. It’s something we have to tackle on both the Polish and the Ukrainian sides of the Bug, says Rafa\u0142 Siwek. <\/p>\n