Macedonia Acts on ‘Toxic Air’ Protests

Skopje _ Macedonia’s Government has reached a deal with a crude oil refinery on placing pollution measuring stations around the site amid protests by local residents.

“(The crude oil factory) OKTA will meet all the people’s demands that we as the Ministry of Environment also support,” Minister Nexhati Jakupi told media after holding talks with the refinery management. The setting up of measurement stations will begin as soon as possible, he said.

But local residents that live near the refinery outside the capital Skopje and who have been blockading the plant since last week ,are not convinced.

“We have been deceived before, so why should we trust them this time,” one local resident shouted in front of television cameras.

The leader of the coordinative body of the protestors, Mile Stankovski said they need to look through the documents signed by the refinery and the Ministry first in order to reach their decision for staying or for leaving the blockade.

They complain of high emissions of toxic sulphur dioxide gases in the air that have affected their health for years.

The refinery on the other hand, says its toxic emissions satisfy current regulations. The factory claims to have recently mounted the long-awaited desulphurisation filter that contributes additionally to the low emission of toxic gases.

OKTA said that if the blockade stays, fuel stations in the country may soon face shortages. The refinery is by far the largest supplier of fuel in the country and a major exporter to nearby countries.

The factory built with Russian technology in the early 1980s is now owned by Greece’s Hellenic Petroleum.