Bosnia and Herzegovina: dying for coal
- 8 years ago
On all Saints day, people had come from all parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and even from abroad, to honour their loved ones at the cemetary of the Divkovici village, in Bosian and Herzegovina.
That’s where we met Goran Stojak, who recently lost his father to lung cancer.
In the last four months, six people from Divkovici have died of the same condition.
They are the latest on a long list of deaths from lung cancer in the area.
The finger of suspicion points towards the Tuzla power plant. Waste from its coal combustion is discharged just outside the village.
Bosnia faces legal action over Chinese-backed coal dash: https://t.co/1VNw1dXjG7 pic.twitter.com/nwtX90KiTH— Climate Home (@ClimateHome) October 31, 2016
Goran Stojak has been fighting to save locals from the plant’s pollution for years.
“The power plant is there, and the waste comes through the pipeline,” Stojak explained to Euronews.
“And this water gradually seeps into the ground, it spreads on the banks, on both sides of the lake. And it gets into the wells from where people get their drinking water.”
Once filtered and mixed with water, the waste is piped to large landfills on the village outskirts.
Tests carried out by an independent laboratory have shown high concentrations of heavy metal residues lying deep underground.
“It looks like fairly rich, fertile soil. But it’s actually waste residues from the coal plant.” says our reporter on the field, Valerie Gauriat. “And in there, you can find things such as cadmium, mercury, arsenic , chromium. All this has contaminated the land around the village, as well as the water.”
In dry weather, the wind blows particles of toxic soot to peoples’ homes.
Bosnia and Herzegovina #coal power plants face wave of lawsuits and complaints https://t.co/QFwevkMZRk #BiH #Balkans #environment pic.twitter.com/JIoHwgNY42— Bankwatch (@ceebankwatch) October 17, 2016
Most villagers are affected by asthma, bronchitis and even more serious lung diseases.
“Last night, I had to take my wife and our seven-month-old baby to hospital for lung obstruction problems,” Stojak said.
“Lying in bed at night I often hear my neighbour crying out from the pain of lung cancer, he continued. “People living here are doomed. This village will be a ghost town in a few years. There’ll be nobody left.”
Goran heads up a neighbourhood community and constantly tries to get local authorities to do something about the plant’s pollution.
He says nothing has been done for the 70 people who still live in the village, such as Mila, who lives off a meager pension, and until recently, from food grown in her garden.
“They used to weigh up to three kilos,” she told Euronews,, showing a finger-size beet grown in her garden for the cows.
Laboratory test results scare Mila, but she says it is not easy to give up on her home-grown produce.
“We have no choice,” she said. “We have small pensions, we have to live off something.. We have no money to buy things
That’s where we met Goran Stojak, who recently lost his father to lung cancer.
In the last four months, six people from Divkovici have died of the same condition.
They are the latest on a long list of deaths from lung cancer in the area.
The finger of suspicion points towards the Tuzla power plant. Waste from its coal combustion is discharged just outside the village.
Bosnia faces legal action over Chinese-backed coal dash: https://t.co/1VNw1dXjG7 pic.twitter.com/nwtX90KiTH— Climate Home (@ClimateHome) October 31, 2016
Goran Stojak has been fighting to save locals from the plant’s pollution for years.
“The power plant is there, and the waste comes through the pipeline,” Stojak explained to Euronews.
“And this water gradually seeps into the ground, it spreads on the banks, on both sides of the lake. And it gets into the wells from where people get their drinking water.”
Once filtered and mixed with water, the waste is piped to large landfills on the village outskirts.
Tests carried out by an independent laboratory have shown high concentrations of heavy metal residues lying deep underground.
“It looks like fairly rich, fertile soil. But it’s actually waste residues from the coal plant.” says our reporter on the field, Valerie Gauriat. “And in there, you can find things such as cadmium, mercury, arsenic , chromium. All this has contaminated the land around the village, as well as the water.”
In dry weather, the wind blows particles of toxic soot to peoples’ homes.
Bosnia and Herzegovina #coal power plants face wave of lawsuits and complaints https://t.co/QFwevkMZRk #BiH #Balkans #environment pic.twitter.com/JIoHwgNY42— Bankwatch (@ceebankwatch) October 17, 2016
Most villagers are affected by asthma, bronchitis and even more serious lung diseases.
“Last night, I had to take my wife and our seven-month-old baby to hospital for lung obstruction problems,” Stojak said.
“Lying in bed at night I often hear my neighbour crying out from the pain of lung cancer, he continued. “People living here are doomed. This village will be a ghost town in a few years. There’ll be nobody left.”
Goran heads up a neighbourhood community and constantly tries to get local authorities to do something about the plant’s pollution.
He says nothing has been done for the 70 people who still live in the village, such as Mila, who lives off a meager pension, and until recently, from food grown in her garden.
“They used to weigh up to three kilos,” she told Euronews,, showing a finger-size beet grown in her garden for the cows.
Laboratory test results scare Mila, but she says it is not easy to give up on her home-grown produce.
“We have no choice,” she said. “We have small pensions, we have to live off something.. We have no money to buy things