Aleksandra Tomanic
Air pollution is a problem shared across the Western Balkans, and it takes regional solidarity to exercise "the right to breathe," the executive director of the European Fund for the Balkans, Aleksandra Tomanic, said on Jan. 25.
In a comment for BETA on the launch of a new campaign, The Balkans United for Clean Air, Tomanic said the problem had persisted for years, but it became a topic for debate only recently, when air quality indicators and the amount of PM particles were made public.
"We have a very high death rate, and as varying as the numbers may be, regional statistics show that 13,500 people die prematurely every year due to poor air quality," Tomanic said, explaining that power plants might not be the sole polluter in the Western Balkans, but they were certainly the largest.
When asked what the public could do and what she expected the campaign to achieve, the Fund's CEO said that the overall objective was to make the public familiar with the magnitude of the problem, provide adequate information as to the causes and consequences of air pollution, so that people could demand that their rights be respected.
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