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Some 15,000 Tonnes of German Waste Illegally Stored in Czech Republic

Posted on: Tuesday, 14 February 2006, 12:00 CST

Text of report in English by Czech news agency CTK

Prague, 14 February: Some 15,000 tonnes of waste that has been recently illegally brought from Germany are being stored in the Czech Republic, according to the Czech Environment Inspection (CIZP), Martin Stifter from the CIZP Prague centre told CTK today.

This quantity had to be carried by 626 lorries, he said, adding that most of the lorries loaded with waste arrived in the Czech Republic at the end of last year. At present, the situation has improved also thanks to a campaign launched by German authorities, he said.

First illegal waste dumps were uncovered at the end of last year in the Liberec region, north Bohemia. But there are also illegal waste dumps in the Usti nad Labem, north Bohemia, the Plzen, west Bohemia, and the Central Bohemian regions.

Environment inspectors cooperated with customs officers in their search for illegal waste dumps since customs officials have the right to stop and inspect lorries. Many of the lorries carrying waste have been returned to Germany.

Individual perpetrators or companies responsible for illegal waste dumps face a fine of up to 10m korunas, Stifter said.

Some dumps contain dangerous waste and police are investigating their origin as a crime of endangering the public. In such cases, the perpetrators face prison sentences. The police are dealing with three cases, including that of two storage facilities with waste in Libceves, north Bohemia, that caught fire on 5 February, causing the risk of poisonous substances leaking into the air.

According to the press, someone probably set the premises on fire deliberately to destroy the waste.

The CIZP has fined two Czech firms for illegal storing of German waste 300,000 and 250,000 korunas. The companies have also been ordered to remove the dumps.

Environment Minister Libor Ambrozek intends to discuss the problem, which does not only concern the Czech Republic, within the Visegrad Four that includes apart from the Czech Republic and Slovakia, also Poland and Hungary.

According to Environment Ministry spokeswoman Karolina Sulova, Ambrozek intends to send a letter to the German environment minister on the topic and open the issue at a meeting of the European Union Council of the environment ministries that will take place on 9 March.

(One dollar equals 23.91 korunas)

Source: BBC Monitoring European

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