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PANCEVO – A GAS CHAMBER TOWN
Published 13th December 2009 - 8 comments - 1187 views -
Pancevo is a town located approximately 20 km east of Belgrade. It is the center of Serbia’s petrochemical industry.
Its southern industrial zone which contains petrochemical facilities and oil refineries is very close to residential areas. This is why the air quality in Pancevo has been terrible for many years.
The high concentration of benzene and other dangerous chemicals, such as sulphur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, ammonia and toluene have been directly affecting the citizens’ health as well as the climate change.
The concentration of these hazardous particles and compounds is most of the time above the allowed maximum. When this is the case, sirens alert the citizens, by sounding an alarm, just like in 1999, when Pancevo was a target of the NATO forces in its campaign against Serbia.
Life in Pancevo is unhealthy, and has continued to be a major source of stress.
Below are three selected comments from different periods written by Pancevo’s citizens, which were published on various forums:
Spale: ''This evening, 28. 12.2006, about 23.45, the sirens have started sounding, alerting the citizens to the chemical danger, advising them to stay at their homes. Again! I don’t know what I can say more about the problem... They are systematically killing a whole town, and no action has been taken on any occasion. This is becoming unbearable...”
Nathan: “The sirens has stopped to sound the alarm but they [factories] have not stopped to pollute... This morning, at about 3 o’clock, it was too smelly in my bedroom, I couldn’t sleep... I was very angry... Scum! If they have the courage to release the poison, then let them release it when everyone is awake, not to kill us off like rats while we are sleeping. Scum!”
Tanja: “Pancevo is one of the most polluted towns in Europe and this fact must not be ignored. Just look at the statistics, many more people from Pancevo have malignant diseases than people from any other town in Serbia (including Belgrade)...”
Three years later, the situation remains unchanged. On November 27, 2009, when new pollution ocurred, the Mayor of Pancevo, Vesna Martinovic, appealed to the officials to be responsible in regard to the problem.
“Last night’s situation in Pancevo, relating to the air pollution, represents the culmination of several days’ worth of continuing environmental contamination. It is an absolutely inadmissible fact that everyone who are responsible behave like everything is OK. I think that the behavior is arrogant and irresponsible toward Pancevo’s citizens and the town on the whole.”
Martinovic asked the managements of factories from the south industrial zone to take responsibility and stop the pollution.
For years back, the citizens were organizing numerous protests, not only in Pancevo, but in Belgrade, in front of the Government’s building. However, all this has been without success. Their lives are still not better, their health is still endangered.
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:( The history of Bhopal should hae thouht us better than to continue with this kind of industries.
One would need a legal organization for all Europe and even the whole world because pollution has effects everywhere in the world!
Unbearable!!!!!
I noticed several posts of yours are about pollution. Do people in Serbia feel that problem as much you do?
Hi Federico. I think that many ordinary people in Serbia feel the problem like me. It’s unbelievable that officials ignore it constantly.
It’s a complex issue, but maybe a mass mobilization will change their attitude.
The mobilizations of masses are sometimes effective.
The day when the law will be voted and promulgated the result will be more durable.
Well, in France you have a history that proves that mass protests do work.
Not always, my dear!
For education there is a revolution at each time you want change anything.
In that direction a good ministry make nothing!