By Marton Dunai and Marton Monus
SAJONEMETI, Hungary (Reuters) – Zoltan Berki often wakes up before dawn, while his five young children sleep in the house next door, to feed the old iron furnace that sits in a wall cavity to heat the two rooms. This is the only part of his home that he can heat during the winter.
Rain or shine, Berki, a squat 28-year-old Gypsy man, rides his bike for an hour to work to save on the bus fare, so he’s awake anyway.
But he also has to burn some materials before dawn, to hide the thick black smoke that comes out of his chimney when he uses plastic or rubber. This domestic pollution is illegal in Hungary, including in this city near the border with Slovakia.
People do it anyway. On a cloudy winter day, dense smoke of different shades comes out of almost every chimney. It remains low in the air, gradually filling the narrow valleys.
“Firewood is expensive,” said Berki on a recent afternoon, as his family played with him, huddled in a small room. “Or I buy wood or food. So I go to the forest, or to the junkyard, and if we find plastic or rubber, we burn it.”
The European Union Court of Justice ruled last week that Hungary has breached pollution limits for more than a decade in the Sajo River valley, as well as in other areas, which could be a reason for financial penalties unless it is reversed .
The decision should be seen as “an alert”, said European Commission spokeswoman Vivian Loonela.
The Hungarian government did not respond to a request for comment.
Although Hungary has reduced its carbon emissions in recent decades and is not the worst criminal in Europe, pockets of high pollution persist and the rules are rarely enforced, according to environmental groups and rights groups.
The capital Budapest and the city of Pecs in the south also suffer, but the situation in the Sajo valley, where pollution and poverty go hand in hand, is especially serious.
At Berki’s house, the hand-sized doors of the furnace creak open. Berki lights the flames and throws a wooden board or two to increase the heat. Then he burns everything he can. Plastic bottles, cut tires and window frames work. An old shoe is usually enough.
The collection of material https://reut.rs/3tKI0wD to burn is common for the poorest people in the small and seedy city of Sajonemeti and nearby, among Europe’s poorest communities since the heavy industry of the communist era disappeared 30 years ago, leaving thousands of unemployed.
Aware of the rules, Berki avoids burning fuel during the day.
“The neighbors can see it and you can smell it too,” he said. “We throw rubber and plastic bottles and things like that at night.”
The valley is a dead end and prevents winds as cold air settles, so heavy smoke can last for weeks. Several of these areas exist in Hungary, together contributing to thousands of premature deaths each year, according to Europe’s highest court.
YEARS OF ALARM
Hungarian environmental groups have been warning for years.
In 2020, Zsuzsanna F. Nagy, the leading environmental activist in northeastern Hungary, interviewed local residents about their heating practices and found that while some people burned garbage, even those who tried to heat homes properly, often burned lignite or other coal products unsuitable for domestic use.
This echoed the assessment of the Clean Air Action Group, a green organization based in Budapest, which said coal types could vary widely and, using the wrong ones, families could erase the gains made by post-communist cleansing of the industry.
The gap between quality coal and low-grade alternatives could mean a 60-fold difference in particulate emissions, he said.
In Hungary, a country of 10 million people, air pollution causes 13,000 premature deaths annually, one million people fall ill and billions of euros are lost in economic damage, said Judit Szego, leader of the Clean Air project.
According to the European Environmental Agency, Hungary ranks third in Europe, behind Bulgaria and Poland in health damage, losing 1,128 years of life annually per 100,000 residents due to particle pollution, or small flying dust, alone – compared to about 500 in the UK or 250 in Sweden.
Air pollution can cause allergic reactions, asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, the National Institute of Public Health said in a 2017 study.
Berki’s five children use inhalers because they suffer from asthma symptoms, he said. For his father, Zoltan Berki Sr., pollution means chest pain and cough.
On Sunday, the oldest Berki went to dig up leftover coal with his hands – a common sight in winter.
The man-made hills are full of materials to burn, including logs from the old coal mine tracks that are infused with diesel.
“Smokes like the devil, but it burns well,” he said as he piled some. “We collect what we find and take it home to burn. They heat up well and we can’t buy anything.”
(Additional reporting by Kate Abnett in Brussels; Editing by Mike Collett-White)