Environmental Injustice

[Tsenka Uzunova]

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21st century, a member country of the European Union, holding the presidency of the Union. On the other hand, one of the poorest and most corrupted states according to the researches and statistics. This is Bulgaria, my motherland – a wonderful country, the oldest in Europe, and at the same time with the dirtiest air and problems in ecology and environmental preservation.

It is hardly probable there to be such a drastic ecological injustice in any other country. However, I am astonished by what is happening in some of the ghettos in Sofia, where extremely poor and uneducated people live and who rely solely on state handouts, bin scavenging and burning waste.

Roma population, who live in some districts in Sofia, use everything which can burn for heating, without taking in consideration their children, other people around them, not mentioning the air and nature. They take everything that is flammable: clothes, handbags, shoes, cables, old tyres, etc. Second hand clothes are several times cheaper than the coal and wood which are still given to them as heating handouts by the Municipality. Cables are also burnt in order to melt the coating and take the metal to the scrap depots. Not to mention the tyres and all other types of items that are collected from the bins in the streets. Skip-diving is some kind of subsistence for them, there is even zoning – it is known who can scavenge which  bins and when.

As a result of this uncontrollable burning of everything they can lay their hands on, tens of thousands of people are exposed to extremely toxic chemicals, compelled to breath air, which is “enriched” with considerable quantity of sulphur and half of the elements in the Periodic Table, and the fine particulate matter in the air is 15-20 times above normal levels. The residents of these districts have written to every possible institution, protests are constantly organized. The problem is also discussed in mass media. For the time being, the measures that are taken are just partial and nothing has changed. This is a particularly serious matter, which has not been solved for several years, while the tension is escalating and the welfare of the people is becoming impossible.

There is an Environmental Protection Law as well as Waste Management Act which were implemented in 2017. How and whether these acts are observed? Urgent, draconic measures must be taken so that this ecological nightmare is settled. On the other hand, this issue is deeply rooted  in the numerous problems concerning integration of Roma, the majority of which are uneducated, with low health culture, rely on state handouts and are used by politicians and authorities as an easily controlled electorate during electoral campaigns.

I think sharing the problems with as much people as possible, increases the opportunity the issues to be settled much faster and more effectively. Irrespectively of our age, gender, social position, political party or education, all this rests with us.

Dealing with this ecological injustice is a responsibility of the whole society, as it affects all of us. We need to be active and relentless no matter where we live or what our occupation is. We live on Earth as guests, we do not own her and we owe it to Her, to our children and to

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everything else on our planet.

 

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Source: bTV Media Group, 20.11.2017 г.

http://m.btvnovinite.bg/article/bulgaria/obshtestvo/zhiteli-na-fakulteta-se-otopljavat-s-drehi-vtora-raka.html

 

 

29.01.2018 г.                                                             Author: Tsenka Uzunova

Sofia

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