Serbia generates up to 80,000 tons of hazardous waste with most of it not deposited in the proper way. Citizens could be of great help here if there were more agile in reporting inappropriately stored waste.
This is what the Serbian Environmental Protection Minister, Goran Trivan said in front of the parliamentary Environmental Protection Committee following a discovery of a huge hazardous waste dump near Obrenovac late last year.
“For me, personally, this is the biggest crime that somebody can commit, i.e. bury hazardous waste that then poisons land and drinking water thus jeopardizing people’s health”, Trivan said.
In late 2017, authorities discovered over 25 tons of hazardous waste near Obrenovac with some buried in the house yard owned by Zoran Markovic, who is currently imprisoned, and some in nearby fields. Unofficial investigation has shown that it was Markovic who illegally disposed of this waste.
Some of the official analyses of the waste have been completed, and they show that this is a very dangerous, cancerogenic waste because it contains benzene and benzene derivatives, as well as trichlorethylene.
The people living in the village of Vukicevic, where the waste was found, use the water from the local well, and they had not be informed whether they are allowed to use the water or not. The City Public Health Institute tested the water in late December, but no results have been revealed as yet.
Another issue that Trivan spoke about in front of the Committee was a more widespread use of electric cars in Serbia.
Many countries in Europe have a plan to start producing cars without internal combustion, and if we want to keep up with the world, we must apply their solutions. How is it possible that none of the owners of the 100,000 used cars that were imported last year were not required to pay the environmental tax, and yet when a new car is imported, the tax should be paid?” Trivan asked.
(Sve Vesti, 12.01.2018)
http://www.svevesti.com/a336833-te%C5%A1ki-otrovi-ukopali-srbiju