UNMIK ON AIR

30 April, 2003

ENVIRONMENT

(Hysni Recica)

Hello and welcome to UNMIK on air with Martin Redi and Sputnik Kilambi.

It just takes a glance at the mountains of trash all over Kosovo to see environment education and protection needs more attention. The garbage is unsightly, smelly, and potentially dangerous to health. What’s more, the few factories still operating in Kosovo add significantly to air and water pollution.

Things are looking up: a “basic environmental law” has now been passed. But as yet it has no provision for fining people or entities that contribute to pollution. Too early for that, say the members of the Assembly.

So it’s literally down to people on the ground. Earth Day in Kosovo was the start of a clean-up Kosovo campaign, organized by the Ministry of Environment and Spatial Planning. But with just a few participants, most of them environmental officials, the response from public was not satisfactory at all.

VOX-POP:

Hysni: How much do we care about the environment?

Not at all, there is a lack of awareness.

Hysni: Don’t people want to have a cleaner environment?

They all do, but actually they do not pay proper attention to the environment.

But Marco Lembo, an ardent environmentalist and advisor for education and public awareness in the Ministry of Environment, believes Kosovars can care for their surroundings, given encouragement. More green areas, more parks, more rubbish containers would help people change their attitude.

But not everyone believes Kosovars can be clean and green. People here keep their houses and their yards clean, but don’t care what happens outside, says Zeqir Veselaj, advisor to the Minister of Environment

Zeqir Veselaj: This is why we called the campaign “Kosova shtepia ime” (Kosovo my home) to make people see Kosovo as their home.

The Kosovo-wide cleaning campaign will continue until the fifth of June. But the issue remains how to make people come forward and join the campaign in bigger numbers. Children can make a change, stresses Lembo, at least in the long run.

Marco Lembo: Every week we visit a different school, both Albanian and from last Octobar we have started to go to Serbian enclaves, in which we organize seminars, workshops, interactive activities with the children on environmental education and protection. We know that they will be one day the next generation of Kosova, they will be maybe politicians, managers, engineers, lawyers, and we want them to grow with a kind of environmental protection consciousness and education.

There are people who think that education alone won’t change attitudes, there have to be penalties, In US, for example, you are fined $250 for throwing trash from your car window. Education for children and fines for grown ups, insists Veselaj

Zeqir Veselaj: Not only here, but throughout the world, I have had a chance to see westerners, even they when they are not afraid of a fine, they know how to throw garbage, I have seen them do this in Kosovo, because they know they will not get fined, on the other hand there are Albanians abroad who respect the law and do not throw garbage.

But Kosovo’s environmental problems don’t end with garbage. Air pollution is another concern, not to mention rivers bringing more empty bottles than water.

The Head of Kosovo’s Green Party, Daut Maloku, says that after the closure of Zvecan foundry, the main polluters of air remain KEK and the cement factory in Hani I Elezit. And he’s threatening to take action against the director of the company which runs the factory, if something isn’t done by June 5.

Daut Maloku: If UNMIK does not take measures by that time, we will try to prevent him from entering Kosovo, since he lives in Skopje…we will organize our activists to try again to talk to him, since there is no chance to meet him elsewhere apart from the time he crosses the border.

But what is the Green Party actually doing to improve the environment? Not joining the clean-up campaign, it seems. Mr Maloku says it is not their job to go out and clean the streets.

Daut Maloku: What we do is strategic surveys that help Kosovo reach a stable development one day, we do a professional work, like in western countries, like in America, Germany, like in Australia.

Spring’s here, and the buds are starting to push their way through the garbage. Let’s make life easier for them and join the cleanup campaign. That’s all for today… Stay tuned…