Environmental Disasters Waiting
to Happen
UN/ECE issues stern warning
Geneva, 15 December 2000
On the day that the Baia Mare Task Force publishes its findings, Kaj
Bärlund, Environment Director of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe
(UN/ECE) and member of the Task Force, warns against complacency. "Tailings ponds in
the newly independent States are a major threat to the environment and to public health.
The hazards posed by refuse from mines in the newly independent States, such as Armenia,
Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Ukraine, are often more serious than in other central or east
European countries. There should be no doubt about that."
The Baia Mare Task Force concludes that, under different circumstances,
the disastrous accidents that took place in Romania at the beginning of the year could
have had even more serious consequences. The fact that nobody died or became seriously
ill, despite the release into the river system of 120 tons of cyanide and 20,000 tons of
sludge containing heavy metals, was due to the prompt reaction of the authorities and a
large dose of sheer luck.
The report blames the accidents at Baia Mare and Baia Borsa on the use
of tailings ponds that had no provision for the emergency discharge of excess water. But
according to the Environmental Performance Reviews1/ that UN/ECE has carried out recently in several countries of the former Soviet
Union, deficient tailings ponds are a widespread problem that their mining industries and
governments need to come to grips with.
The management of huge quantities of mining waste, for instance,
attracts little political attention in countries whose economies have hit rock bottom.
Many of the mines are still operating, but only at a fraction of their capacity. In
Kyrgyzstan, for instance, some mines used to provide uranium to the former Soviet nuclear
weapons and energy industries. But now the mines are idle and their tailings have been
abandoned. There have been appeals for both national and international funding to tackle
the problems of these abandoned sites, but so far very little money has been forthcoming.
However, apart from trying to raise money, the authorities should:
Use the expertise they have to set minimum legal and administrative
procedures for the granting of permits for industrial operations;
Set priorities, so that the most hazardous sites are cleaned up
first;
Make the industries that generated the waste in the first place carry
most of the financial burden for cleaning it up.
"Finally," says Kaj Bärlund, "these countries should be
encouraged to sign up to the UN/ECE Conventions on the Protection and Use of Transboundary
Watercourses and International Lakes, on the Transboundary Effects of Industrial
Accidents, and on Environmental Impact Assessment in a Transboundary Context. This would
give them easier access to international expertise. It may not be possible to impose
ambitious "western" solutions, but the international community is, nevertheless,
an indispensable partner for these countries if they are to halt the present environmental
degradation and protect public health."
For more information, please contact:
Kaj Bärlund, Director
UN/ECE Environment and Human Settlements Division
Palais des Nations, office 334
CH - 1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland
Phone: (+41 22) 917 23 70
Fax: (+41 22) 907 01 07
E-mail: [email protected]
1/ United Nations Economic Commission for
Europe, Environmental Performance Reviews: Ukraine, 2000, 231 p. Sales No.
E.00.II.E.1, ISBN 92-1-116743-4, US$ 12. The Environmental Performance Reviews of Armenia,
Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan are forthcoming.
In order to provide you with a better service, we would appreciate it if
you would send a copy of your article to: Information Unit, United Nations Economic
Commission for Europe (UN/ECE), Palais des Nations, Room 356, CH - 1211 Geneva 10,
Switzerland
Tel: +(41 22) 917 44 44, Fax: +(41 22) 917 05 05
E-mail: [email protected],
Website: http://www.unece.org
Thank you. |