Minister Luka: KEK, Pristina's biggest air pollutant

KEK is counted among the biggest pollutants. So has Minister of Economic Development Valdrin Luka. He has said KEK contributes to pollution from 8-10 per cent.

Minister Luka, in a Facebook post, has said burning coal is the main pollutants in Kosovo's cities.

“KEK contributes to Pristina pollution by about 8 to 10 percent of all pollution. Kosovo B is greater than Kosovo A because Kosovo filters have been changed in 2011 and Kosovo B has never been since 1985. Furthermore, the air currents do not direct KEK smoke towards Pristina in most of the time”, Luka wrote.

He has said burning uncontrolled coal is the main polluting in Kosovo cities, where he participates with over 60 percent of pollution.

Luka's full delivery:

I want to say something about air pollution in Pristina and other cities hoping to understand better where emergency measures should be taken!

KEK contributes to Pristina pollution by about 8 per cent to 10 per cent of all pollution. Kosovo B is greater than Kosovo A because Kosovo filters have been changed in 2011 and Kosovo B has never been since 1985. Furthermore, air currents do not direct KEK smoke in Pristina's direction at most.

Uncontrolled coal burning is the main polluting in Kosovo cities where it participates with over 60 per cent of pollution.

Cars participate by about 30 per cent.

The main problem in my opinion?

The town that burns in the house and the business is illegally purchased. When purchased illegally, coal is untreated.

What does that mean?

The roof when it is removed from the ground is very wet. Normally it needs to dry out in advance, where during this process a large portion of the sulfur is removed (which is extremely harmful and smells bad as we are known in the “era Obilicq)

Kosova Thranill is controlled selling coal to some buyers such as Ferronikel and Sharcem. That coal is dry and treated. We in Pristina when we say that the smell of Obilic is coming, it's exactly the dryer of this company that creates that bad smell as a result of the sulfur.

The untreated coal that is illegally bought and burned in the house and businesses without any filter is lethal because it creates much more dust than the coal treated, releases carbon dioxide and sulphur to make it difficult to breathe, and therefore causes disease in children and pressing age. And that's the main problem!

This is further worse when it is added that during winter air pressure keeps pollution in cities and during winter, there is an obvious lack of greenery.

Now politics must take action on the basis of this, and the main emergency is the ban on coal URM. When I say in the source, there are some: the identification and ban of illegal extraction, the ban on giving in the form of a gift from KEK* to the workers, as well as the ban on Kosovo's sales to individuals and businesses that have no filters on burning.

When the source stops, then citizens using heating coal have nowhere to buy, and therefore there would be no need for inspectors who control each house or business (something impossible when we see it's not working on tobacco laws).

Car traffic must be adjusted in permanent form as any developed country.

* The percentages are rough on the basis of discussions with field experts.

* * KEK rewards each year, each of the 5,000 employees with 8 tons of coal. By the coming year, this action will be banned.