Three Balkan capitals among world's most polluted cities; Toxic waste ship docks in Albania
by AFP Staff Writers
Belgrade (AFP) Nov 8, 2024

Three Balkans region capitals -- Belgrade, Pristina and Sarajevo -- were on Friday among the 10 most polluted cities in the world, just behind Lahore, Delhi and Beijing.

In the three cities, the air quality index (AQI), which measures a range of pollutants, spiked above the level of 150 which is considered unhealthy.

In Paris and Los Angeles it was 44 and 34 respectively.

The extreme pollution in the three Balkan capitals coincided with the drop in temperatures.

In the Serbian capital Belgrade, the concentration of particles with a diameter of 2.5 microns or less (PM2.5) had reached 98 micrograms per cubic meter. It was more than 19 times the World Health Organisation's annual guideline.

The PM2.5 particles pose a severe health risk if inhaled over long periods of time as they are tiny enough to get into the bloodstream.

In Sarajevo, the capital of neighbouring Bosnia, the situation has been worsening over the past few days, especially in the evenings, due to the tens of thousands of homes using coal and wood as fuel.

In some parts of the city, the concentration of PM2.5 particles exceeded 300 micrograms per cubic metre.

Experts say the Balkan cities suffer from a chronic air pollution due to several reasons, citing notably burning of fossil fuels -- coal in particular -- in various forms and outdated technologies.

The start of the heating season aggravates the problem, they say.

"With burning of low-quality coal and wood, and what is particular for our region, burning of all kinds of waste -- old furniture, clothes, plastic -- and, in the worst case, using motor oil for heating, we get the picture," said Dejan Lekic of the Belgrade-based National Ecological Association.

"Combined with heavy traffic in major cities this means extreme pollution," he told AFP.

Air pollution is the cause of 20 percent of premature deaths in 19 Balkan cities, according to a UN study from 2019.

People living in the region lose in average up to 1.3 years of their life due to air pollution, the study showed.

Ship with suspected toxic waste allowed to unload in Albania
Durres, Albania (AFP) Nov 8, 2024 - A ship carrying possibly toxic industrial waste unloaded on Friday at an Albanian port, after being refused entry to Thailand and spending months at sea, authorities said.

The Turkish-flagged Moliva container ship -- believed to be carrying around a hundred containers filled with suspicious waste -- arrived in the waters near the port of Durres last week.

But it was not initially permitted to dock at the port. It had to wait until Friday before being allowed to unload.

The authorities took charge of "102 containers unloaded from the ship", the interior ministry said.

"The whole operation was carried out according to a strict plan ordered by the prosecutors in Durres."

The containers are being taken to a "secure location, away from populated areas, complying with all rigorous conditions for physical, environmental and sanitary safety", the ministry added.

Each step during the process was "recorded and documented, and the containers were checked, scanned and verified", it said.

The Durres prosecutor's office had launched an investigation into "smuggling of prohibited goods" and "abuse of power", in cooperation with the European Anti-Fraud Office OLAF.

On Monday it urged several public institutions to make their laboratories and experts available to analyse the contents of the containers.

The containers left Albania in early July, and according to documents from Albanian customs authorities at that time, its cargo consisted of industrial waste, specifically "iron oxide", whose export is authorised.

However, information passed on by a whistleblower to the Basel Action Network (BAN), a non-governmental organisation that combats the export of toxic waste to developing countries, suggests the cargo actually contains electric arc furnace dust (EAFD).

Classified as toxic waste, this dust must be stored and transported under very strict conditions.

The cargo was ultimately rejected by Thailand and returned to Albania after several months at sea, with stopovers and ship changes in various countries including Spain, Portugal, Italy and Turkey.

According to the paperwork on file, the waste comes from the Elbasan steel plant in central Albania.

The shipment of industrial waste from Western countries to be processed elsewhere in the developing world is a global business estimated to be worth between 44 billion and 70 billion euros ($48 billion to $77 billion) annually, according to environmental NGOs.

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