People suffer due to bleached pulp plant in Svetlahorsk while authorities keep calm

Belsat has repeatedly reported that after the construction of a bleached pulp plant in Svetlahorsk the local residents have complained about caustic emissions.

For the last three months, a group of local activists has gathered in the central square of the town urging the authorities to control emissions from a newly built plant.

“They have a very harmful effect, especially on the bodies of young people and children. They develop diseases of the nervous system, developmental delays, this has been already proven,” one of the activists says.

Activists are trying to make information about the hazards of production in the enterprise publicly available to citizens.

“If we don’t stand here, if we solve the problem behind the door, behind which no one sees that we are solving there, then the problem will not be solved,” activists say.

Residents concerned about emissions from the bleached pulp plant are advised to call the company’s dispatcher service. We also called there.

“There is a crawling text on the building. Come, see everything, everything is written there: how much of what and how… ” the representative of the bleached pulp plant told us.

At the end of March, state-run television channels broadcast a series of reports on the plant. Representatives of non-state media were not invited to that press tour. In the reports from the press tour journalists reported that now all problems have been resolved. Local activist Alena Maslouskaya noted that this kind of information provided by state-run media is not entirely true.

Residents of Yakimava Slabada told us that almost immediately after the release of one of the stories on the state television channels, another release from the plant took place.

“The smell was disgusting. As you say, the toilet smells better,” says Vasil Pyatruchenka.

“I went to the doctor. He told me that I had allergic rhinitis, Nina joins the conversation. – Where did rhinitis come from, I am 60 years old – and an allergy to something? The doctor says the environment in Slabada is no the best”.

Locals complain about the reports of state channels.

“No one came and no one saw anyone. How can we be silent, if it is impossible to live today?”

But representatives of local authorities strongly advise the residents against communicating with non-state media.

“And then the problems started: the police came, filed protocols, etc.”