After being a
battlefield during World War II, Lithuania suffered violent repression and a
long Soviet occupation.



While the Soviet security organs
mercilessly silenced political opposition, the Soviet state also erected
scientific and technical organizations that paid serious attention to
water pollution after 1945. It
established management of water protection in Lithuania immediately after the
war. Studies of water pollution, which led to regular follow-up with
standardized methods, also began to take place at an early stage. The research
data were not generally classified as secret, but instead were published in
professional journals. This
scientific work was more than academic; it informed policy.  The Lithuanian SSR immediately began to
undertake practical measures to reduce water pollution emissions. As a result
of the long-term water protection policy in Lithuania during the Soviet era, a
significant processing system for residential, industrial, and agricultural
wastewater was constructed, which was comprised of sewage networks, collection
pipes, pumping plants, and the maintenance and monitoring systems in over 900
treatment plants of various types. With the aid of these large-scale
investments the ecological status of rivers improved during the period of
Soviet occupation. Despite its shortcomings, the Soviet Union's environmental
policy was relatively successful when it comes to the waters of Lithuania.