site.btaProtests in Bulgarian, Romanian Danube Cities Ruse, Giugiu Against Bio-Waste Incinerator Construction in Giurgiu

Dozens of residents of the Romanian city of Giurgiu and of the Bulgarian city of Ruse organized a protest rally on Friday in front of the Giurgiu County Prefecture against the deployment of a bio-waste incineration plant in the city of Giurgiu, Agerpres reported.

Protesters chanted and carried posters and banners calling for a halt to this project, which they said could lead to pollution of the area.

"We have the experience of the Chemical Factory in Giurgiu, which has created a lot of public health problems for decades, not only for us but also for our Bulgarian neighbours (... ) In the case of the construction of the bio-waste incinerator in Giurgiu, there is the problem of the distance to residential areas, because in one form of the law it was 500 metres, but there is something wrong here because after the investor did the impact study, this provision disappeared from the law and there is no longer a distance, but only an obligation to carry out an impact study," Ciprian Alexandru, the initiator of the protest, said.

To counteract this omission in the law, the Municipal Council of Giurgiu approved at a meeting on Friday, August 31, a health protection distance of 1,000 meters for any investment site that exposes the civil society to health risks. The meeting was also attended by Ruse deputy mayor Dimitar Nedev, who expressed concern about the construction of an incinerator in Giurgiu, the agency said.

"I don't see such an investment as appropriate in Giurgiu, as tourism projects should be developed here, but instead we are bringing a potential polluter and ships with tourists will no more stop at the port of Giurgiu," Alexandru added. 

Citizens stressed that they want to have clean for themselves and for their children grow up healthy. 

Later in the day in Ruse, protesters set up banners reading "Ruse is against the incinerator in Giurgiu", "Ruse does not want more poisons" and "Stop the genocide of Ruse's citizens!"

"I promise that with a group of citizens of Giurgiu we will do our best to stop this project. The protests will continue," Alexandru told the citizens of Ruse.