Water resources of the Russian European North: specifics and management in economic activity

Water management development and improvement of water resources rational use can be called one of the priorities of the strategic development of the country and its regions particularly the European North of Russia. The purpose of this article is to identify the specifics and key features of water resources management in the economic activity of the Russian European North. The paper identified a number of problems in water management development: natural waters low quality, reduction of inland waterways efficiency, reduction of freshwater bioresources, weak involvement of water bodies in ecologically friendly economic activities. State bodies provide economic incentives to improve the rational use of natural resources mainly for industry, in relation to other industries, it is practically not applied. As a result of studying domestic and foreign experience of water resources management the following tools addressing the identified problems were proposed, the regional environmental Fund for the regulation of fees for negative impact on the environment and co-financing the implementation of resource-saving technologies; small hydropower development for water bodies involvement in the supply of energy to remote areas; water supply network reconstruction and development of its regular monitoring system to reduce losses and improve the water quality of centralized water supply; establishment of a monitoring system for river vessels to detect illegal catch and its sale; regular dredging to maintain inland waterways in functional condition. The study did not consider groundwater due to the lack of data accounting for their reserves in all subjects of the area being studied, as well as the features of use due to differences in chemical composition. Further research will assess the effectiveness of the groundwater use as hydromineral raw materials.