[ALBSA-Info] helmimi i ambientit te shqiperise

[Albi Qeli]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/europe/newsid_1300000/1300282.stm

People live in the ruins of contaminated factories

Hotspots 
Durres: Thousands of refugees living in toxic contamination
Vlore: Families and animals living in very hazardous mercury contamination
Patos: Contaminated groundwater, sulphurous gas and hydrocarbon air
pollution
Ballsh: Oil emissions into environment contamination of local water supplies
Sharra: Toxic smoke and dust from burning rubbish 
But rather than trying to persuade people to move out of the poison zone,
the municipality has begun laying foundations for a building to house them
there. 

Thousands of Albanians are being poisoned on a daily basis by fatal toxins
in their environment, a United Nations Environment Programme (Unep) report
has revealed. 

Toxic levels thousands of times higher than those permitted in EU states
were found on land where children play, vegetables are grown and animals
graze. 

Even the experts involved in the study were said to be shocked by the extent
of the pollution. 

They have identified five "hotspots" which they say need immediate attention
and another four they consider urgent. 

The lives of several thousand children and adults estimated to live in and
around one of the hotspots, Durres, are said to be in grave danger. 

UN experts have issued alerts
 
People, many of them refugees arriving in the town from Kosovo or from even
more poverty-stricken parts of Albania, have salvaged bricks from the
factory for their homes. 

But these are contaminated, meaning they constantly live in an atmosphere of
overwhelming toxic poisons, the report says. 

In water from one well on the site levels of chlorobenzene - a toxin that
affects the nervous system, bone marrow, liver, kidneys, blood and
reproductive organs - were found to be over 4,000 times the acceptable level
of some European Union countries. 

Milk from cows grazing on the land produced high levels of a toxin which
causes liver cancer and affects the kidneys and immune system. 

Another cause for grave concern was the former PVC factory at Vlore, where
soil samples showed mercury contamination 1,000 times the level permitted by
the EU. 

Mercury exposure can cause permanent damage to the brain, kidneys and lungs
but about 180 families live there. 

They graze their animals on the toxic land and feed their families with
vegetables grown on it. 

Although the government reportedly tried to stop people living there, these
attempts have been unsuccessful. 

Now it supplies the families with drinking water and sells them contaminated
scrap metal and bricks from the factory. 

The Sharra rubbish tip which serves the capital, Tirana, is also poisoning
the people of Albania. 

Dense smoke laden with toxic dust from rubbish burnt at the dump billows for
miles around. 

Unep has urged the Albanian authorities to take urgent measures to start
dealing with its catastrophic catalogue of environmental degradation, and is
urging the international community to take notice. 

Albania, which has suffered from instability verging on anarchy for the past
10 years and is reeling under the burden of refugees from Kosovo, lacks
funds to deal with problems on this scale.