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UNEP Completes Kosovo, Serbia Postwar "Hot Spot" Clean-Up

Friday, May 7, 2004

The U.N. Environment Program said today at the close of a four-year environmental campaign in the Balkans that efforts to clean up two environmental "hot spots" in Kosovo, damaged by remnants of the 1999 air war in the province, "have been satisfactorily dealt with," and that concerns about two other hot spots in Serbia "have been significantly reduced."

As a result, UNEP said, fresh drinking water has been secured for tens of thousands of people, hundreds of tons of hazardous waste has been removed for treatment and environmental management capacities have been improved.

The $12.5 million UNEP program was created in the aftermath of the Kosovo war as the first U.N.-led clean-up of conflict-induced, environmentally hazardous areas.

"The closure of UNEP's post-conflict activities in the Balkans is a positive signal," said UNEP Executive Director Klaus Toepfer. "It demonstrates that, overall, Southeastern Europe is progressing from conflict to peace."

The program is officially being transferred to the Serbian government. Environmental authorities in Serbia and Montenegro worked with UNEP on a joint conclusive assessment of the four sites — Novi Sad, Pancevo, Kragujevac and Bor (UNEP release, May 7).

UNEP discovered depleted uranium contamination in four sites in 2001. The areas had been targeted with weapons containing the material during the Kosovo conflict (U.N. Wire, Nov. 6, 2001). The substance can pose significant danger, particularly for children, through contaminated soil and water supplies, scientists at the United Kingdom's Royal Society said in 2002 (U.N. Wire, March 13, 2002).