Multiple fires exacerbate air quality

The risk of spreading fires still exists, so experts say on the basis of research, and even this situation has made air quality worse in the country.

Dardan Abazi from the Institute for Development Policy (INDEP) in an interview for Online Economy said hot temperatures have affected air pollution levels, adding that even lack of institutional capacities make it difficult to manage properly.

We still find ourselves in a situation of danger, summer months, and especially in view that climate change has already made summers much hotter than they normally were in our country, and this increases the risk of forest burning”.

“Ende we have a poor forest management and the lack of institutional capacity has caused forests to be contaminated, fires in our country except that they are damaging biodiversity, they are also reducing our timber and air quality, and this is a challenge to society”, Abazi said.

Among other things Abazi says that there are some of the factors that are affecting air quality are the old thermal power plants, the age of cars, and the burning of forests.

“On the basis of multiple research has turned out that not only fires affect air quality, the fact that we have old coal thermal power plants operating over 90% of the energy capacities in Kosovo is one of the main causes of pollution, and then transportation, the age of cars and many other factors that have affected this between”, he stressed.

The same concern lies with Egzanne Shala, ecologist and environmental activist, who said that the state of air quality on an annual basis continues to be dangerous and harmful.

The air situation has undergone some slight changes regarding the pandemic, or better isolation, but those changes have been on a daily basis and not on a general basis. On an annual basis, the situation continues to be harmful, dangerous, and there is no adequate change because transportation is one of the main factors, and then energy and others”, Shala said.

She also points out that the biggest impact is on fires, then vegetation, water, etc.

Shala has appealed that the institutions urgently act because Kosovo is named one of the most polluted countries in the world.

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The polluted sky is an invisible killer, I'm hoping there will be immediate stakes, because we are named as the state with the lowest quality of air and that our institutions take appropriate action and not just words and promises”