Other countries with high levels of pollution have a lot of heavy industry. However, in addition to having industrial power houses, including fossil fueled power plants and a steel mill in Zenica, BiH also suffers from complete lack of attention from the competent authorities, according to a press release circulated by a non-government organization Eko Action.
During 2014 and 2015, the Center for Investigative Reporting in Sarajevo (CIN) published several stories about excessive air pollution in BiH. A story “License for Dirty Air” explains how the authorities have given Tuzla Coal Power Plant a blank check to pollute air, soil and water above set limits.
In 2015, we published a story “Life on Toxic Soil” in which we showed how heavy metals from the power plant’s tailing are slowly poisoning nearby settlements and farm fields.
We also published a documentary film “Power at the Price of Life” describing the lives of people who are suffering from the consequences of polluted air. We discovered that the residents of Tuzla, who live near the local power plant, mostly get sick and die from diseases caused by harmful particles that the World Health Organization links to coal power plant pollution.
