Children play with death in toxic wasteland (Lindane)

First ever study of Albania's environment shocks UN staff experts

Paul Brown / Guardian 27apr01

Children are playing in the ruins of the old factory while the family cow grazes on the weeds growing out of a pile of rubble. The water runs yellow in the ditch between the factory and the family's makeshift home, in what used to be the pesticide store. It is a tell tale sign of the 20,000 tonnes of chemicals under the thin layer of soil.

The site - the former chemical plant at Albania's biggest port, Durres - is one of the five most contaminated "hot spots" in the country, according to a UN Environment Programme report published yesterday. This first ever assessment of Albania's environment has shocked even some of the experts involved in the study.

They concluded that all 80 families living on the site are risking their lives every day. None more so than the family of Flutorime Jani, 51, whose two grandchildren, six and two, are playing in the factory puddles. They live in the former lindane store, and on hot days they have to leave their home because the vapour from the banned pesticide threatens to overwhelm them.

Vegetable plot

In the ground where the family has a makeshift vegetable plot, the concentrations of lindane are up to 500 times the level which would require it to be declared hazardous waste in Britain. The milk from the cow has lindane levels 100 times above the EU safety limit, according to the report. The water from the well the family use for cooking is also contaminated.

Mrs Jani shrugs when she is told that living at the site is illegal. "I know that. I know it smells terribly, but where can I go? We have no choice," she says. "Living here is free. Sometimes we can get casual work in Durres in the building trade."

She says the family left their home village of Dibra, on the Macedonian border, because they were starving. They eventually found the empty factory and moved in. "At least we have more money to buy food than at home, where we had nothing," she says.

She concedes that all four families living in the former lindane store suffer unexplained illnesses, especially the children. She says they would like to move. but they have nowhere to go.

Lindane and chromium VI, another dangerous chemical on the site, cause liver and kidney failure and cancer.

Raw sewage

The chemicals that were once stored in Mrs Jani's new home have been moved to another store near the sea shore, but the roof leaks and the chemicals are dissolving in the rain. The smell scorches the lungs. Breathing in the fumes there could be instantly fatal, but there are no homes nearby.

The pesticides from the contaminated area, along with the raw sewage from the city, are pumped into the sea, but there is no ban on local lobsters and crabs being sold.

The mayor of Durres, Miri Hoti, is not sympathetic to the refugees. "The building is not licensed; they are not permitted to live there," he says. "People build all over the banned area. Most of them are refugees; how can we stop them? We have public land in clean areas to build houses, but no money. What are we to do?"

It is a common theme among officials. Albania has only just begun to recover from 50 years of a repressive communist regime, followed by 10 years of virtual anarchy, the collapse of the economy in a pyramid-selling scandal in 1997 and a war in neighbouring Kosovo which brought half a million refugees into the country.

Ilir Qesja, one of three people who comprise the Durres region environment agency, says: "You can see we have had other problems, but now with international support we can start on this one. First we had to find out the extent of the problems, and the UN has helped us do that. Now no one can claim in Albania they do not know it is dangerous. We must get the people moved, the areas fenced off. Then we must find the £150,000 it would cost to move the chemicals to a safe place. At least that would be a start."

In another hot spot at Vlore, a holiday resort in the south, where 15 tonnes of PVC were made a day until 1993, there is 1,000 times the permitted level of mercury in the soil and on the beach. The vapour damages the brain, kidneys and lungs. As at Durres, more than 100 refugee families have moved on to the site and take advantage of the former factory's services by stealing its electricity and water supply.

Dioxin rain

After a visit by journalists and a UN team yesterday, the mayor, Niko Veiza, has promised to stop local builders stealing highly contaminated sand from the site to build local homes and hotels, after scientists warned him that these people would unwittingly be poisoned too.

The other three hot spots mentioned in the UN report are the capital Tirana's main rubbish dump at Sharra, which is constantly on fire and rains dioxins on the city; the Marize oilfield, where there are lakes of oil from leaks; and the badly maintained oil refinery at nearby Balsh. All need millions of pounds spent on remedial work - money which Albania has not got.