Dying for development

A report from the field

Friends of the Earth campaigner Rey Edward reports from the Balkans, where she visited coal power plants potentially financed or built by Chinese companies. Edward shares observations of coal development’s destruction of a town, and why corporations and policymakers should abandon unsustainable models that put development first and clean-up later, if at all.

There is evidence of a bygone beauty in the mining town of Pljevjia, Montenegro. Even in winter, the mountainside blushes with wild thistle. And hidden in the deep evergreen forests, small waterfalls flow.

Yet this beauty is easy to forget from where I stand on an empty road. In the hazy morning light, I look down into the mouth of an open coal mine. Nearby, thick plumes from the coal plant float and disappear into a dull, grey horizon. Old trucks heaped with coal rumble by.

Animals graze by a stream polluted by the Maljevac ash dump. Their owner’s house is directly downstream of an unstable dam holding back the ash waste, yet he was denied compensation that would have enabled him to move somewhere safer.

The story of Pljevjia exemplifies in many ways why the world needs a new model of development—one that recognizes the true environmental and social costs of dirty energy. The current and default model, “develop first, clean up later,” sees pollution as a necessary evil in order to pave the way for economic growth. However, the past century has shown that economic development is not achieved by developing first and cleaning up later. Especially when the “clean up” part occurs by exporting or displacing dirty industrial activities onto other countries, as is too often the case.

Here, communities face an expansion at their local coal plant, Pljevjia I, which currently supplies about a third of the country’s energy. This expansion is planned despite no domestic need for additional power. (The excess electricity could be exported to neighboring Italy.) Local civil society groups are extremely concerned that the build-out would worsen pollution and negatively impact health. Although the project is promoted as a way to help stimulate the Montenegran economy,the negative effects of coal in the town are so visible and ubiquitous that I could not help but wonder how the country can develop when its residents will face even more respiratory problems and higher mortality rates. Pljevjia is already considered the most polluted place in the whole country.

During winter, smog regularly covers Pljevljia.

Miki, our local guide, has tried to raise awareness of the town’s environmental decline for much of his life. He detailed to me and three other NGO colleagues the array of environmental and health problems caused by the existing coal plant and mine. Local residents are plagued by increased rates of lung cancer, asthma and other respiratory illnesses. Nearby towns refuse to buy cattle from Pljevjia due to concerns about the polluted farmland and unhealthy animals. Residents no longer drink the local water from hundreds of natural springs in the area. On our way into town the day before, Miki stopped by a well on the side of the mountain to collect ten liters of water, explaining, “We pick up water whenever we leave the city. The local water is not safe to drink anymore.” After just a few hours driving around Pljevjia, my eyes burned and my throat turned sore.

Exploitation of the Kostolac mine has substantially decreased the amount of agricultural land available locally.

A group of contractors have expressed interest in the expansion project, including five Chinese companies. Today, Chinese construction companies are among the leading contractors building power plants, roads, dams and infrastructure around the world. The Chinese banks that back them are now the world’s largest financiers of development projects. The World Bank has already developed environmental and social standards, thanks to years of civil society campaigns. But as new players, Chinese banks and companies have not yet established the necessary experience and processes to effectively deal with the environmental and social impacts of megaprojects. As a result, local communities from Ecuador, Peru, Burma, Poland, Serbia, Montenegro and other countries are increasingly concerned if, and how, Chinese corporations will abide by local and international social and environmental standards.

Ugljevik III, promoted by Comsar Energy, is slated to be constructed by the China Power Engineering and Consulting Group Corporation. The mine, pictured here, already supplies coal to the existing Ugljevik I unit. Due to the war, Ugljevik II is currently the subject of a disagreement between Republika Srpska and a Slovene electricity company.

As China continues its national policy of “going global” and expanding into overseas markets, it simultaneously battles its environmental crisis at home. In retrospect, it is easy to see how unrestrained economic development has caused a wave of environmental disasters. China truly is a modern example of what happens when countries develop too fast and clean up too late. But the country is gradually learning to get serious about its environmental problems by reducing emissions, strengthening environmental oversight and pioneering progressive green finance policies, like the Green Credit Directive, which requires environmental safeguards as part of banks’ lending criteria.

Developing countries can learn from China’s environmental follies, especially with respect to its reliance on coal. Consumption of the fossil fuel is a major factor behind China’s notorious smog, and already in Pljevjia, the smell of burning coal hangs in the air, as if permanent.

Every day, waste generated by the coal plant is pumped out into a vast coal ash pond. Residents complain that although the ash is supposed to be kept wet at all times, not enough water is pumped into the coal pond, thus causing severe coal dust and other toxins to create massive dust storms.

In the afternoon, we met a man who lives across a dirt road from the coal ash dump site. Several kilometers in diameter, the pond is essentially a toxic pool. Mixing water with the coal ash is meant to reduce airborne coal dust, but there is not enough water mixed in, causing ongoing “dust storms” in town. As we pulled in front of the house, the liquid ash rested passively, unmoved in the winter breeze.

His house is not just across the street from the coal ash pond, it is also downstream—meaning that runoff also flows into the stream towards his front door. To reduce the stench of sulfur, he affixed a patch of carpet to a pipe transporting coal waste away from the plant, but the crude workaround failed to help. Last year the man filed a lawsuit against the power plant owner, EFT, but lost. The judge ruled against him on the grounds that no evidence could be found supporting the claim that he had been negatively impacted.

As we stood just a few feet away from the ash dump, it was impossible to imagine how a court could find no evidence of harm from an ever-growing lake of black sludge. The man attributed the outcome to the fact that judges often feel obligated to rule against the facts if their salary is tied to local corporations—an open secret in Montenegro. Indeed, other residents have also filed lawsuits against the company, but no one we met prevailed.

The air quality in Pljevlja is thick with smog, especially in winter. Although there were promises to install district heating, no progress has been made. As a result, heat that can be generated by the plant is wasted, forcing residents to burn lignite in their homes for heating.

As more and more Chinese companies and banks invest overseas, they will need to implement high international environmental and social standards. And because China is currently suffering the consequences of a dirty development path, it should take a leading role in creating an alternative model of sustainable development that can be applied at home and abroad. Since the West has already shown us the madness of economic development at all costs—with all its attendant impacts on the global climate, biodiversity and pollution—it may be up to developing nations like China and Montenegro to prove that development can be done differently—and sustainably.

This article was originally featured in Friends of the Earth’s spring 2014 newsmagazine. Below are more photos from Pljevjia.

These pipes bring ash mixed with water from the Tuzla lignite power station to one of Tuzla’s five coal ash disposal sites, covering an area of approximately 170 ha. These not only take up a large amount of space but also constitute a serious environmental problem due to dust and heavy metal content.

Surrounding the mine are abandoned houses, though some residents still live in the area.

An excavator digs out coal in the smaller of the Stanari mines. The Center for Environment, an environmental NGO from Banja Luka, issued a complaint procedure towards the Energy Community Secretariat regarding pollution concerns and permitting inconsistencies.

A coal ash dump is located not far from this house.

This resident’s house is very close to the Maljevac ash dump and he is constantly disturbed by the smell and dust.

Residents report that Chinese workers began arriving last year. Many returned to China during the Lunar New Year but will be back at the project site after the holiday. A nearby sign instructed workers to always stay in groups of at least three people when leaving the compound, to avoid and decline excessive drinking with local residents, and to not step onto farmland and destroy crops.