KOSOVO CONFLICT HOT SPOTS CLEANED UP AS UNEP CLOSES ENVIRONMENTAL CLEAN-UP OPERATIONS IN SERBIA

Kosovo Conflict Hot Spots Cleaned Up as UNEP closes

environmental clean-up operations in Serbia

(Reissued as received.)

BELGRADE/NAIROBI, 7 May (UNEP) -- Two of the health-threatening environmental “hot-spots” identified for urgent remedial action in the wake of the Kosovo Conflict in 1999 have been satisfactorily dealt with.

The conflict-related concerns at two other seriously polluted environmental “hot-spots” in the Republic of Serbia have been significantly reduced.

As a result, fresh drinking water has been secured for tens of thousands of people, hundreds of tons of hazardous waste has been taken away for treatment and environmental management capacities strengthened.

The findings are released today as a pioneering four-year environmental clean-up operation in the war-torn Balkans comes to an end.

Established in the aftermath of the Kosovo war, the $12.5 million United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) clean-up programme has successfully identified, assessed and completed the first United Nations-led clean-up of environmental threats as a result of armed conflict.

“Environmental conditions have a crucial influence on the success of efforts to rebuild shattered communities and livelihoods”, said Klaus Toepfer, UNEP Executive Director.  “Only by ensuring environmental security can the wider goals of post-conflict reconstruction and human development be sustained.”

“The closure of UNEP’s post-conflict activities in the Balkans is a positive signal.  It demonstrates that, overall, South Eastern Europe is progressing from conflict to peace”, he said.

Today, the clean-up programme is being officially handed over to the Government of the Republic of Serbia.  As an integral part of the handover, the environmental authorities in the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro worked together with UNEP on a joint final assessment of the environmental conditions at the four hot-spot sites.

The report, “Assessment of Environmental Hot-spots Serbia and Montenegro April 2004”, says that the conflict-related environmental consequences at Kragujevac and Bor have been largely dealt with.

It also says that in Novi Sad, the risk of serious contamination affecting drinking-water supplies has been substantially reduced and conflict-related environmental impacts are being systematically monitored.  At Pancevo, the place that suffered the most damage during the war, conflict-related concerns have been significantly reduced, but important “pre-war” environmental problems have yet to be addressed.

At most locations the conflict-related impacts represented only a part of the environmental and health challenges present, as serious contamination also pre-dated the Kosovo conflict, and there were long-term deficiencies in the storage and treatment of hazardous waste.

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