In Serbia, the air is again very polluted this morning, and according to data from the AirVisual website, Belgrade ranks 4th among the most polluted capitals in the world, reports N1.
"Here I am now looking out the window and looking over the Danube, there you can already see the reddish colors. It's something we can't avoid," Dejan Lekić, one of the founders of the National Environmental Association (NEA), told Vreme.
He explains that the air is so stratified that all the pollutants emitted into the atmosphere actually stay at the ground.
"There is no wind flow, it does not move either horizontally or vertically. Now we are recording really extreme concentrations of polluting substances, above all suspended particles, which is the main problem in the whole country, except in a few places that have a strong industry", says Lekić.
During the night, when people turn down the heat, the air is usually better and the pollution is reduced to some acceptable level. However, the pollution currently lasts for 48 hours already, it does not decrease in the cycles in which it normally decreases.
"It decreased tonight, but nowhere did it return to a normal state, so this morning everything starts again from the beginning," says Lekić.
Protection of citizens
Our speaker advises citizens to spend as little time outside as possible. This applies primarily to people who have chronic, cardiovascular and pulmonary diseases.
He states that the recommendation is that if they spend time outside, they have less physical activity, but also that the same applies to children.
"A protective mask is a certain level of protection, but recommending that people wear masks after the covid pandemic is not very gratifying," he says.
However, in the long run, this situation can be connected with the economic power of the population, where in many cases citizens are not in a situation to change their heating method.
"We are talking about the poor part of the population that is heated by burning fossil fuels, wood, coal", says Lekić and says that the recommendation is to switch to district heating or gas, but that it is not available everywhere and when it is, it is very expensive, and that the state should also help with subsidies.
At this moment, every individual, says Lekić, can contribute to standard measures, which is to use cars as little as possible, to reduce heating with fossil fuels to a minimum.
What should the state do?
In Serbia, the Air Protection Program for the period between 2022 and 2030 with an Action Plan was adopted.
It is necessary to apply the laws and measures prescribed by the Program in the long term, and according to Lekić, the quantification of the implemented measures must also be seen.
"The program was adopted in December 2022, so more than a year has already passed, and it would be good if, in relation to what is written in the Program and the Action Plan, the authorities should provide a report with the quantification of the implemented measures," says our interlocutor.
"You measure something not to have fun and publish it on websites or in the media, but to recognize situations that are bad for human health, and then manage them."
Finally, what would be the recommendation for the state to do at this time? Dejan Lekić says that it is necessary to inform citizens and that this should not be the activity of journalists or individuals, but news that appears in all means of information so that citizens can protect themselves.
