Crude oil heating plants continue to endanger the air in Belgrade and Serbia

, News

Drastic measures such as shutting down crude oil heating plants are not listed in the existing Air Quality Plan for the city of Belgrade, but it is envisaged that crude oil will no longer be used as an energy source. The fact that non-ecological fuels are still burning in boilers is enough to declare them one of the biggest enemies of healthy living in Belgrade.

Belgrade residents can see the air they breathe in the morning. That the pollution that pinched the lungs was really alarming was also shown by the “Air Visual” site, which put Belgrade on the fifth place on the list of the most polluted cities in the world recently. In recent years, we have become accustomed to consulting such portals and numerous applications before leaving the apartment and preparing in advance for what awaits us before we breathe the city air. The information we receive is often worrying, and the biggest culprit for that, along with the traffic, are the numerous heating plants that are all over the city.

– Of all the pollutants measured by the Environmental Protection Agency, suspended PM10 particles and nitrogen dioxide most often exceed the limit values, much more often during the winter period. Suspended particles are the result of combustion, so the causes can be the use of fuel oil and coal in boiler rooms, but also various waste that is unfortunately used in local furnaces, which can lead to the emission of carcinogenic compounds (burning plastic, for example). The most common reason for nitrogen dioxide exceedances is traffic, which is also confirmed by the places where exceedances occur in Belgrade – explains Filip Radović, director of the Environmental Protection Agency.

– In the urban zone of the city, there are a large number of heating plants that work inefficiently, using unfavorable fuels, such as crude oil and coal. They negatively affect the air quality in the immediate vicinity and in the city of Belgrade.

That is why, in order to improve the quality of the air and the environment, we have started the implementation of the boiler room extinguishing program. The goal is to connect the heating installations of priority facilities in the public ownership of the city to the district heating system or to the natural gas distribution system – said the Secretariat for Environmental Protection, noting that they are not responsible for extinguishing individual fireplaces of private facilities in the city. While city leaders are announcing that they will try to “convince” as many fellow citizens as possible to give up non-ecological heating methods as part of 43 measures to reduce air pollution by preparing a program to reduce prices for connection to the hot water network, public facilities are becoming part of the system district heating of JKP “Belgrade Power Plant” on natural gas.

In the previous period, about 30 public buildings, mostly schools, started heating from the heating plants, and about 320 million dinars were set aside for that.

– By implementing these very important projects, the Secretariat has significantly contributed to the improvement of air quality and the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions – they boast from this city ministry and add that they will continue at the same pace in the future.

– All three schools located on the territory of the municipality of Surcin will be connected to the natural gas distribution system. In this way, the emission of harmful gases is reduced, but children who go to school are also provided with a stay in a healthier and cleaner environment – the secretariat says.

Source: politika.rs

 

 

error: Content is protected !!