Environment Energy Mining Watch SEE|News|The coal mafia in Serbia greatly contributes to air pollution

The coal mafia in Serbia greatly contributes to air pollution

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The report on the state of air quality, published by the Environmental Protection Agency, shows that during the last year in 14 cities in Serbia the air was excessively polluted, exceeding the concentrations of suspended particles PM10 and PM2.5, which is Ognjan Pantić, coordinator of the Energy project, climate and environment, called “silent killers that shorten life.” These days, warnings about air pollution are also coming from all sides, with forecasts that it will be like that all winter.

The director of the research station Petnica, Vigor Majić, claims that the coal mafia is the most responsible for the jump in air pollution, which sells tailings with a large percentage of clay as coal. In the video that was published on social networks, Majić claims that it is a taboo topic that should not be talked about.

“Until the 1990s, the sale of raw lignite was banned. It was industrial coal, you couldn’t buy it for the household. When the possibility of importing coal from Bosnia ceased, the sale of crude lignite was allowed and there was a big jump in pollution. The key jump in pollution happened four or five years ago, and in Belgrade a year ago. There is a coal mafia digging up tailings. REIK (Mining and Energy Industrial Complex Kolubara, author’s note) allows tailings with 30-40 percent of clay to be sold as coal for cheap money “, claims Majić.

“That is why there was a sudden jump in Valjevo, Lajkovac, Uba and Lazarevac. When that mafia made a showdown with the mafia that used to sell coal to companies in Belgrade, a big jump of that quasi-coal appeared on the Belgrade market last year. It is not coal, it contains a huge amount of clay which is heavy, hygroscopic and causes that smoke to fall to the ground with everything it contains instead of going up. It is a taboo topic, it must not be talked about. Coal is not mentioned, lignite is not mentioned “, pointed out the director of Petnica.

Majic also reminds that the legal possibilities to prevent this practice are “incredibly convenient”.

Just send a trade inspection to ask for a declaration of the quality of the goods being sold. Nothing more than that. “Only what the law allows and what is obligatory, but no one has ever sent any inspector to check the declaration of quality for millions of tons of coal, but everyone is chasing grandmothers around the market,” Majic emphasized.

Source: nova.rs

 

 

 

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