BELGRADE , Jan 20 (Tanjug) - Serbian Minister for Environment Protection
Andjelka Mihajlov said Monday that head of the UNMIK office in Belgrade Paul
McKlenburg has confirmed that a large quantity of phenol had leaked from the
Obilic thermo-electric power plant in Kosovo-Metohija into the Ibar and Sitnica
rivers, of which the people in Serbia have been unaware.
At his meeting Monday with Serbian government representatives, McKlenburg said
that a concentration of 300 mg of phenol per liter of water was registered in
Sitnica on January 18, which is 300 times more than the domestic regulations
allow. The Serbian authorities have requested from the international community
to explain why they and the people have not been informed of this highly toxic
substance leak and to enable Serbian inspectors to go to Kosovo-Metohija to
determine whether the leak was accidental or intentional, Mihajlov said.
Serbian government addressed from its Monday session a strong protest to UNMIK
chief Michael Steiner over the serious endangering of the environment in Serbia
caused by a phenol leak from a Kosovo-Metohija power plant into the Sitnica and
Ibar rivers, the government press service said Monday evening.
The phenol leak into Sitnica has caused a dangerous concentration of toxic
materials in the Ibar river and jeopardized the supply of drinking water to over
100,000 residents of Kraljevo (central Serbia) and possibly other towns too, the
government said, demanding immediate clarifications on the cause of the
environmental disaster.