Kosovo Pollution Costing the Earth

Opinion: Scrapping Article 38 Won’t Help Kosovo Media’s Cause June 22 - July 5, 2012 Issue No. 91 www.prishtinainsight.com Price € 1 Best-Selling NEWS Kosovo History Two-thirds of Upsets Albanians Kosovo Water Lost and Serbs A Kosovo Albanian Professor has succeeded in annoying both historians in Serbia and also those from > page 2 his home country. NEWS Jusuf Buxhovi’s trilogy on Serbia Still Bent on Kosovo’s history, published in February, claims among ‘Abusing’ Kosovo other things that Issue Albanians, not Greeks, > page 3 founded the city of Troy. NEWS See Page 5 Kosovo Task Force Probes Mystery of Kosovo Pollution Costing the Earth Asanaj's Death Pollution of Kosovo’s air, land and water is costing the country’s economy up to 330 million euro a year, sending > page 4 thousands to an early grave and could even spark conflict with its neighbour Serbia, two new reports by the FEATURE World Bank have warned. Round-up: Justice Danube, could lead to conflict which receives untreated waste- Poisoned Wells By Lawrence Marzouk, Bujar Aruqaj between the troubled neighbours. water from the divided town of in Kosovo “This is a significant trans- Mitrovica, before the river enters The World Bank believes that > page 12 and 13 rishtina’s air is four times boundary concern,” the report Serbia, and later the Danube. groundwater, used by up to a third more polluted with the most warns. “There is no treatment of the of the population for drinking INSIDE PRISHTINA Pdangerous, PM2.5 particles wastewater collected, which water in Kosovo, is also polluted Prishtina’s than international safe levels, Water Conflict includes both domestic and indus- and a health risk, particularly to according to new data released by trial wastewaters,” the report children. Blazing Heat the World Bank. The World Bank’s Water reads. “The pollution of groundwater This – alongside land polluted Security for Central Kosovo “Prishtina city is discharging is growing due to new building by heavy metals, slurry filled report, released earlier this its wastewater in the Sitnica River and the absence of pollution pre- rivers, illegal land-filling and month, reveals concerns of poten- which is flowing back into the vention mechanisms. deforestation – cost Kosovo tial conflict between Kosovo and Ibër. Mitrovica wastewater is “Groundwater resources are between 123 to 323 million euro in Serbia over river pollution. directly discharged into the Ibër therefore increasingly contami- 2010, or between 2.9 to 7.7 per cent Currently there is no sewage River. nated. If nothing is done this > page 18 of GDP. The figure includes lost treatment facility in Kosovo, mean- “This presents potentially a trend will reduce the water avail- time due to illness, costs to the ing that wastewater from threat for human health locally, able for human consumption health sector and cost of land Prishtina’s growing population and may become a source of con- especially in rural areas in the rehabilitation, among others. flows straight into the river Sitnica, flict with the downstream riparian future.” The World Bank is also warning which runs under the city. (Serbia).” Tests in 2009 on wells and local that the current practice of wash- Unregulated industrial waste from “All the necessary steps to ease springs found that 90 per cent of Kosovo’s only English-language ing all of Prishtina’s sewage into the country’s aging power plants, tension for this transboundary samples were contaminated with newspaper is available: the Sitnica River, which then runs Kosovo A and B, and small factories matter should be taken by nitrates and fecal matter. through the capital into the Ibar/ also flow into the river, untreated. Kosovar Authorities,” the report Delivered to Ibër, then into Serbia and later the The Sitnica then enters the Iber, concludes. continues page 2 Your Door Macedonia Closes Another Turkish PM’s Son-in-Law From Newsstands Critical Media Outlet Clinches KEK Sale across Kosovo The revocation of the licence comes just The Turkish corporations, Limak and Sent To as the TV recently started to air news bul- Calik, are poised to jointly take over Your Inbox letins and live political panels and to hire Kosovo’s electricity distribution network some of the journalists who previously after outbidding opposition from Egypt’s worked in A1. Elsewedy Electricity. From But the council's explanation for its Limak, which already runs Prishtina our partners action is that “the TV failed to meet the International Airport... neighbourhod licence criteria”... page 8 business page 7 see page 16 for more info is supported by: 2 June 22 - July 5, 2012 news Kosovo Pollution Costing the Earth from page 1 ed that the high levels of popula- Ghana with 49.8 and tion are responsible for 850 deaths Antanananrivo of Madagascar Of those who are not connected and up to 11,000 medical emergen- with 59. to piped water, 90 per cent are sup- cies a year. All Prishtina measurements plied by water from shallow wells Levels of PM2.5, tiny particles were taken at the the Rilindja and boreholes, which are highly which are damaging to the health, building in the heart of the capital. vulnerable to pollution. were measured at 40 micrograms Levels of PM2.5 reached 106.62 In the plain of the Ibër and per cubic meter on average micrograms per cubic meter in Sitnica, which covers most of the between 2010 and 2011 – four times January 2011 - more than ten times areas around Prishtina, Mitrovica the World Heath Organisation rec- the WHO limit. and Drenas, ground water is “often ommended limit. Levels of the less harmful, large contaminated”, leading to children At 40 micrograms per cubic particles, PM10, averaged at just Sitnica river, which runs through Prishtina and into the Ibar. suffering water-related diseases. meter, Pristina is significantly under 80 micrograms per cubic The report calls on the Kosovo worse than most cities in the meter for the same period four WB has decided to help the govern- Costing the Earth government to draw up a “strategic Europe and the Western world. times the WHO limit. However, this ment by building a new power plant sector masterplan” for the water Sydney, in 2009 recorded levels of was lower than many other that would pollute the environment Pollution is costing Kosovo up to supply and seek donor funding to 7 micrograms per cubic meter, European capitals, including less - and that’s their biggest argu- 330 million euro a year, mostly as roll out piped water to all the popu- according to UN data. Sarajevo which registered 117 ment in their support for Kosova e a result of air pollution, and lead lation and build wastewater treat- Germany’s industrial city micrograms per cubic meter in Re project,” Shahini said, referring in the soil. to the World Bank backed scheme to ment facilities. Stuttgart , birthplace of cars and 2008. “Kosovo faces serious social engines, was just 15.5 in 2008. build a new 600 MW power plant on The World Bank believes that and economic impacts from poor- According to World Health the outskirts of Prishtina. Air Pollution higher pollution levels during win- ly managed polluting activities Organizations data, the average ter are largely due to increased use “This sort of argument is mistak- and could make huge gains from According to the World Bank value of PM 2.5 in London is 13.5, of inefficient home heating, pow- en because its starts from the prem- remedial actions to protect and report, Kosovo Country or about three times lower than in ered by lignite and wood. ise that Kosovo should necessarily restore the quality of the environ- Environmental Analysis, Prishtina Prishtina. The biggest overall polluters are fulfill its energetic needs by extract- ment.” is three times more polluted than Even the Polish industrial city of the country’s two coal plants, ing and burning the low quality Added to air and lead, inade- London in terms of toxic small par- Krakow, home to Philip Morris, Kosovo A and B in Obilic, on the coal its has.” quate waste collection and dispos- ticles in the air, called PM2.5. Feneral Electric, Motorola and outskirts of the city. Shahini said that instead, the al is estimated to cost up to 31 mil- Some 31 percent of all patients in IBM, registered 36.2 in 2008. According to the report, about first step should be to curtail elec- the Kosovo health system have res- Prishtina’s pollution levels were, 835 premature deaths per year are tricity losses of 40 per cent from lion euro a year, as a result of the piratory problems and it is estimat- however, surpassed by Accra in caused by air pollution in the coun- theft, technical problems and cost of illegal dumpsites and on try. unpaid bills. property prices. In addition, there are approxi- After that, she said, renewable The total health costs related to Lead Poisoning mately 310 cases of chronic bron- energy should be properly explored. inadequate water supply, sanita- chitis and 11,600 emergency visits. “These in addition to the invest- tion and hygiene as well as heavy igh levels of lead across childhood, Besa Shahini, coordinator at the ments to improve Kosovo B power metal water pollution of surface the country, caused by while children in Zvecan and Kosovo Civil Society Consortium plants and the closure of Kosovo A, waters are equivalent to up to 20 Hindustry and mining, Mitrovica lose 8 to 10 IQ points, for Sustainable Development should lead to a Kosovo with much million euro a year, largely due to mean that children have high lev- because of lead poisoning.

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