Kosovo stifles under a blanket of bad air
Tiny nation fights back with masks, apps, action
PRISTINA, Kosovo – The air is so bad that it has spawned protests, apps and even its own hashtag.
Pedestrians in Pristina, pop. 200,000, don masks when they go outside during the winter.
Two coal-fired power plants a mile outside this capital in the town of Obiliq spew the rancid smell of burning coal year-round, and wood stoves add smoke to the mix.
“If I had the opportunity to leave for somewhere else, within 24 hours, I would move from this place,” said Elfete Krasniqi, 27. “My son, who is almost 3 years old, can’t go one month without getting bronchitis.”
Kosovo, which declared independence from Serbia in 2008, has the world’s fifth-largest reserve of brown coal, among the dirtiest fossil fuels. The World Bank called the country’s aging, coal-fired power plants the “worst single point source of pollution in Europe.”
Though Kosovo is plagued with political instability, economic stagnation and a restive Serbian minority, those problems in the long term could pale in comparison with the health challenges it faces because of poor air quality.
Pristina residents weren’t aware how bad the pollution was until two years ago, when the U.S. Embassy started to measure air quality and released the data in real time on the Internet. The data registered hazardous levels at least three times above what health experts consider acceptable. Residents can monitor their air quality on smartphone apps.
Fabien Techene, an environmentalist, said the embassy pollution data help people realize “it’s not a daily problem or weekly problem, it’s a yearly problem.”
Pollution from power plants and nearby lignite mines have taken a toll on people’s health, said Haki Jashari, director of the small hospital in Obiliq.
“Environmental pollution is related to the disease in children and the elderly, especially in cancerous and respiratory diseases,” he said from his office, which overlooks one of the old power plants.
Jashari said he has seen an average of three new cancer cases each month over the past year. Serious diseases that usually strike seniors appear in the young and middle-aged. “The pollution of the environment is outside of any norm,” he said.
Thick layers of smog often hover over Pristina during cold months, when most building heating systems use coal and wood. Cars and buses operate with few or no emissions inspections, contributing to the haze.
Pristina banned cars from entering the city center in January, when air pollution levels became hazardous.
Ron Idrizaj, 21, helped organize protests against pollution this year. He launched a campaign called #Breathe to galvanize citizens to call for action.
“I believe it’s a human right to live with air that will not kill you,” Idrizaj said. “Knowing the fact that air quality in Kosovo is worse than in China, for example, even though Kosovo doesn’t have corporations or other things, can have an impact on air pollution.”
Kosovo’s government plans to build a third lignite coal power plant in Obiliq to replace the aging coal plants. That defies local environmental groups’ aims to transform Kosovo into a clean-energy leader and not rely solely on coal. One of the country’s main environmental groups, the Kosovo Civil Society Consortium for Sustainable Development, stresses the dire need for people and the economy to move toward sustainable energy.
“There are continually promises that this place is going to be better,” said Kastriot Krasniqi, 24, a bus ticket collector. “Still, nothing changes.”