Chinese-owned steel mill coats Serbian town in red dust; cancer spreads
>>Reuters
Published: 09 Nov 2021 04:42 PM BdST Updated: 09 Nov 2021 04:42 PM BdST
-
A general view of Chinese-owned HBIS Serbia steel mill in the village of Radinac, as cancer rates have quadrupled in under a decade, near the city of Smederevo, Serbia, Nov 3, 2021. Picture taken November 3, 2021. REUTERS
A few hundred meters from the huge furnaces of the Chinese-owned Smedrevo steel mill in central Serbia, the village of Radinac is covered in thick red dust. Cancer rates have quadrupled in under a decade, and residents want the plant to clean up or shut down.
Zoran, 70, a throat cancer patient who speaks with a voice prosthesis after his larynx was removed, said residents must dry their laundry indoors and use vinegar to clean the dust from their cars.
"Water cannot wash it off," he said. "We do not go out. We do not dare."
According to data from the Smederevo public health body, which a watchdog called Tvrdjava obtained through a freedom of information request, the municipality of around 100,000 people reported 6,866 cancer cases in 2019, up from 1,738 in 2011.
The plant says it has invested 300 million euros in technology and pollution reduction since China's biggest steelmaker, Hesteel, bought it from the Serbian state for 46 million euros ($53 million) five years ago.
"We are all citizens of Smederevo.... Would we be working despite pollution, against ourselves and our children?" said the plant's manager for environmental protection, Ljubica Drake.
Three new production facilities will significantly reduce pollution after their completion in 2022, she said. It was "not correct" to conclude that higher cancer rates were caused by the plant's activities, she said, adding that the disease could be a result of NATO's bombing of Serbia in 1999 during a war in Kosovo.
But activists say the plant is an example of Chinese-owned industrial firms ignoring pollution standards.
Nikola Krstic, the head of Tvrdjava, an environmental group whose name means The Fort, said an analysis of the red dust in September showed high concentration of heavy metals.
"The air in the town is far below European standards for 120 days per year," he said. "Red dust is greasy, it sticks to lungs, makes breathing difficult."
China has invested billions of euros in Serbia, which is a candidate to join the EU but has an uneasy relationship with the West more than two decades after the wars that followed the breakup of Yugoslavia, and has pursued close ties with Beijing.
The authorities in Belgrade say they are prepared to challenge Chinese-owened companies over pollution.
In April, Serbia's authorities ordered China's Zijin Mining Group to temporarily halt some operations at the country's only copper mine over failure to comply with environmental standards. The mine said it would rectify all the problems swiftly, and it was permitted to reopen.
"Not only must polluters be fined, ... if they cannot reduce pollution ... they must halt operations," said Zorana Mihajlovic, Serbia's mining and energy minister, last week.
-
Sea swallows beach houses on the Outer Banks
-
Oil giants sell dirty wells to buyers with looser climate goals: study
-
World may see 1.5C of warming in next 5 years: WMO
-
Shifting heatwave pattern puts health, crops at risk
-
Rich nations must stick to climate promises: US envoy
-
Why climate change makes it harder to fight fire with fire
-
Home offices: a new climate challenge
-
Modi asks states to prepare heat action plans
-
Beach houses on the Outer Banks are being swallowed by the sea
-
Oil giants sell dirty wells to buyers with looser climate goals, study finds
-
World could see 1.5C of warming in next five years, WMO reports
-
Heatwave pattern is shifting to a ‘significant hazard’ for health, crops in Bangladesh
-
Rich nations must stick to climate promises, says US envoy Kerry
-
Why climate change makes it harder to fight fire with fire
Most Read
- US police say college student Zinat’s death was a suicide. Her family disagrees
- Exhausted, weak wild elephant prefers to stay close to humans
- U-turns are meant to de-clog Dhaka roads. Many believe they are doing the opposite
- Students from two colleges in Dhaka clash, disrupting traffic
- Growing evidence of military disaster on the Donets River pierces pro-Russian bubble
- Wanted over scams in Bangladesh, PK Halder and associates face grilling after arrest in India
- The extraordinary rise of PK Halder and the spectacular fall of firms he controlled
- 10 people killed and 3 wounded in shooting at Buffalo grocery store
- BJP leader slapped on camera over comments against veteran politician Sharad Pawar
- TCB postpones sales of goods at subsidised prices for poor