1. Tilt up, Daut Gashi walking
2. Various shots, Dardhishte village
3. Wide shot, Obilic energy plant
4. Wide shot, Daut Gashi walking
5. Close up, ashes
6. SOUNDBITE (Albanian) Daut Gashi, villager:
“If the ash dumps continue, the danger will be larger than now, because the ash is harmful”
7. Various shots, Obilic energy plant
8. Zoom out, Obilic power plant
9. Med shot, man shoveling ash
10. SOUNDBITE (Albanian) Ibush Bublaku, Ash Project Manager, Kosovo Energy Corporation (KEK):
“It doesn’t emit dust, so it is much cleaner.”
11. Wide shot, tractor removing dust at plant
12. Close up, plant
13. Wide shot, coal mines
14. Close up, pipes
15. Wide shot, plant
16. Close up, pipes
17. Wide shot, three men walking through defunct gasification plant
18. SOUNDBITE (English) Behxhet Shala, Kosovo Energy Corporation Environmental (KEK) Manager:
“We are in the process to of reviewing the different options and to see the best way to of treating these chemicals.”
19. Various shots, ash mounds
23. Close up, finger pointing to screen with slide show
24. Wide shot, screen and room of people watching
25. Close up, speaker
26. Wide shot, speaker
STORYLINE:
Daut Gashi walks home past what appears to be ordinary hills, but they are mounds of ash.
He has lived 40 of his 65 years in Dardhishte, a village at the base of the huge mounds created by decades of dumping burned remains of coal used to run Kosovo’s main power plants.
Daut and others in his village say they have suffered years of sickness because of the ash from both the mounds and nearby energy plants.
SOUNDBITE (Albanian) Daut Gashi , villager :
“If the ash dumps continue, the danger will be larger than now, because the ash is harmful.”
Kosovo has a history of poor environmental practices in its energy and mining sectors.
It now gets most of its energy from this power plant outside the city of Pristina.
Nearby sits a defunct gasification plant dating from the 1950s. It leaks waste, some of which are toxic.
Kosovo is now cleaning up its energy sector with support from international donors, including the World Bank.
SOUNDBITE (Albanian), Ibush Bublaku, Ash Project Manager, Kosovo’s Energy Corporation (KEK):
“It doesn’t emit dust, so it is much cleaner.”
Ibush Bublaku is a manager at Kosovo’s Energy Corporation (KEK), which runs the energy stations.
He explains to visitors that KEK has used the international donor finances to fund new technology that limits the amount of ash escaping into the environment, through a new system which allows ash to be transported via closed ducts and pipes to an empty mine.
The financing is also going toward the safe removal of hazardous chemicals left behind at the defunct gasification plant and to see whether the site can be rehabilitated.
SOUNDBITE (English) Behxhet Shala, Environmental Manager, Kosovo’s Energy Corporation (KEK) :
“We are in the process to of reviewing the different options and to see the best way to of treating these chemicals.”
Government-hired engineers are researching ways of leveling the ash mounds, and covering them with dirt where trees and other vegetation could grow.
And the government is now working out plans for a new energy station. The new plant would meet stricter European environmental rules and provide not only more energy for Kosovo but energy that could be marketed to neighboring countries as well.