Hello Hari,
It is Dean from the micro finance and the environment days. I saw your e-mail come in
when I was in Tanzania. I could not really respond at the time. I hope you are doing
well. I still do a lot of work in the environment/enterprise field mostly for USAID.
I have moved on to doing a lot of project evaluation as well.
It seems to me that you have moved on to bigger things, perhaps not better. I hope so,
only you can really judge this. I see with my wife as she moves up the food chain in her
respective field that the best jobs were the simpler ones where she was more involved in
the process as opposed to overseeing matters.
Take care.
Dean
On Nov 16, Hari Srinivas <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> High levels of cancer-causing gases, apparently released by a petrochemical plant,
triggered a public alarm system in an industrial city near Belgrade, officials said
Wednesday. Sirens wailed for several hours overnight in Pancevo, 10 kilometers (6 miles)
east of the Serbian capital, prompting thousands of residents to remain indoors as
levels of benzene and chlorine in the air soared to 10 times higher than
normal. "Benzene is a highly cancerous chemical. This is intolerable," said Srdjan
Mikovic, the head of Pancevo's local government. He accused HIP Petrohemija, Serbia's
largest petrochemical plant with annual production of 800,000 tons a year, of releasing
the harmful substances into the air. President Boris Tadic urgently visited the area and
called for the temporary closure of the plant, saying "people's lives are much more
important than the production."
>
> The plant, however, continued operating while scaling down parts of the production
believed to have caused the pollution. Serbia's Ministry of Science and Environmental
Protection said it was consulting with prosecutors about filing criminal charges against
the company. "We had repeatedly warned (HIP Petrohemija) managers that there could be
significant pollution, and they have done nothing to prevent it," said Miroslav Nikcevic
of the ministry's environment department. Public prosecutors questioned the plant's
managers, but they rejected any wrongdoing saying petrol production was conducted in
accordance with "everyday procedures," the prosecutors' office said.
>
> Hundreds of high school pupils marched in downtown Pancevo on Wednesday
demanding "normal living conditions" in the city. The toxins were reduced from 118
micrograms per cubic meter of air to "nearly normal levels" of about 10 micrograms by
Wednesday morning, city officials said, seeking to ease concerns in Pancevo as well as
among Belgrade's population of nearly 2 million. HIP Petrohemija and a nearby oil
refinery are outdated and lack environmental protection systems, environmentalists say.
>
> Source: Zs. Boszormenyi (RSOE HAVARIA - Hungary) via the Virtual OSOCC
>
>
> --
> Dr. Hari Srinivas
> Chief of Urban Environmental Management Unit
> International Environmental Technology Centre
> United Nations Environment Programme
> 2-110, Ryokuchi Koen, Tsurumi-ku, Osaka 538-0036, Japan
> Tel: +(81-6) 6915-4594 Fax: +(81-6) 6915-0304
> Mobile: +81-80-3137-9303
> Skype name: hari-srinivas
> Web: <a href='http://www.unep.or.jp/'>http://www.unep.or.jp/</a>
>
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