The Blacksmith Institute today comes up with a list of 10 most polluted places on Earth:
NEW YORK (Reuters) – A Russian city where chemical weapons were once manufactured and a town in Zambia’s copper mining belt are among the 10 most polluted places on Earth, a U.S. environmental group said on Wednesday.
The list was compiled by the New York-based nonprofit group the Blacksmith Institute, which said the world’s pollution is sickening up to 1 billion people.
The 10 places were chosen by a board of experts from more than 35 nominated sites which in turn were filtered by the same board from a list of 300 sites. The full list is available at the group’s website. While no Southeast Asia country is listed in the top ten list, two Filipino sites were nominated. The two sites are Mount Diwalwal and Marilao; both were caused by mineral extraction activities. Yes, no Kuala Lumpur despite the fact the air quality hit 108 in the Air Pollution Index yesterday.
In the top ten list itself, most of them come from former Soviet state members.
On top of the list is Chernobyl, Ukraine. Of course, that relates to the 1986 nuclear meltdown disaster. Years ago, I highlighted a site that has pictures of the ghost town. Please do re-read that entry. The report is here.
Second is Dzerzhinsk, Russia. The area is Russian chemical manufacturing center. Not just that, it was the production center of chemical weapon. Much of the waste from the manufacturing operation was improperly disposed of and it affected the air, the land and the water badly. Read the full report here.
The next site is Bajos de Haina, Dominican Republic. Source of pollution: smelter. The area is highly comtaminated with lead. More here.
Fourth is Kawbe, Zambia. Cause: mineral mining. Located in an area called Copperbelt, it was on of Zambia’s major source of income. All minerals like cadmium, lead and zinc were heavily mined by the British during colonial period. The detail is available here.
Fifth is La Oroya, Peru. Cause: Mining and smelting activities. Read it up here.
Linfen of People’s Republic of China is sixth. The cause of pollution: the thriving coal industry. Do I have to say “read it here” this time?
Seventh is Maaluu-Suu, Kyrgyzstan. There was a uranium plant here and the waste was placed here. Also, the area played a very vital role in the production of the first Soviet nuclear bomb. Here!
Eighth is Norilsk, Russia. It’s the site of the largest nickel-copper-palladium deposits in the world according to Wikipedia. How polluted the area is? Well, I quote the report:
…the snow is black, the air tastes of sulfur…
Also, interestingly, Norilsk is off limit to foreigners:
Since November 2001, Norilsk has been shut to foreigners, one of 90 “closed towns” in Russia where Soviet-levels of secrecy persist.
On the nine rung is Ranipet, India. Source: tannery. As you might have guessed, it’s here.
The final entry is Rudnaya Pristan, Russia. The source here also concerns lead mining. Read it here.
There you go. Five of the top ten places are in former Soviet territories.
