Post by radovic on Jan 8, 2009 10:43:08 GMT -5
Bosnia Faces Collapse Without Gas
Sarajevo | 08 January 2009 |
Sarajevo winterSevered gas supplies threaten Bosnia with humanitarian and economic disaster as two smelters have closed down production and some 100,000 households have been left without heating and hot water in subzero temperatures.
Some heating companies were able to transfer to other heating sources such as heating oil, but supplies will last for 5 days and fuel distributors are scampering to purchase new amounts. Power companies have urged citizens to limit the use of electricity for heating and cooking in order to avoid power cuts and collapse of the entire power grid.
“We are unprepared for any crisis which we cannot influence,” said Rubina Cengic, columnist in Nezavisne Novine daily on Thursday, lamenting the fact that Bosnia had no alternative sources of gas, or any gas stockpiles.
She added that it is an irony that it was this crisis that proved Bosnia to be a part of Europe. “We have been left without the gas like the rest of the EU.”
The gas supply to Bosnia was cut off entirely on Tuesday due to the Russia-Ukraine dispute that has affected gas flows to most of Europe. Bosnians on Thursday scrambled to find substitutes for heating and cooking in the middle of a cold snap around the country.
In the first 24 hours alone, people in the capital Sarajevo -- which lies in the middle of the snow-capped Dinaric Alps -- bought off all the stockpiles of electric heaters in the city’s shops.
Some travelled as far as to the town of Mostar in the south to buy heaters. Those who were too late had to resort to buying wood stoves and wood supplies.
Severed gas supplies on Tuesday afternoon forced Birac alumina smelter in the eastern town of Zvornik and ArcelorMittal smelter in Zenica to almost completely shut down production. Company officials said the haphazard shutdown could have devastating effects for the firms.
“Dramatic situation in the Birac factory,” was a headline in Sarajevo daily Dnevni Avaz on Thursday.
The population in Zvornik and Zenica depend almost solely on the two smelters for heating. Together with the Bosnian capital, in these three cities some 100,000 households or an estimated 300,000 people have been left without heating and hot water.
This has also affected many premises such as kindergartens, schools, hospitals, businesses and others, which depended on gas for heating or production. Local authorities said they will have to close most of them down unless gas supplies are reopened as soon as possible.
Meteorologists forecast a further drop in temperatures, expected to fall to -13 Celsius in the capital on Thursday night.
Sarajevo | 08 January 2009 |
Sarajevo winterSevered gas supplies threaten Bosnia with humanitarian and economic disaster as two smelters have closed down production and some 100,000 households have been left without heating and hot water in subzero temperatures.
Some heating companies were able to transfer to other heating sources such as heating oil, but supplies will last for 5 days and fuel distributors are scampering to purchase new amounts. Power companies have urged citizens to limit the use of electricity for heating and cooking in order to avoid power cuts and collapse of the entire power grid.
“We are unprepared for any crisis which we cannot influence,” said Rubina Cengic, columnist in Nezavisne Novine daily on Thursday, lamenting the fact that Bosnia had no alternative sources of gas, or any gas stockpiles.
She added that it is an irony that it was this crisis that proved Bosnia to be a part of Europe. “We have been left without the gas like the rest of the EU.”
The gas supply to Bosnia was cut off entirely on Tuesday due to the Russia-Ukraine dispute that has affected gas flows to most of Europe. Bosnians on Thursday scrambled to find substitutes for heating and cooking in the middle of a cold snap around the country.
In the first 24 hours alone, people in the capital Sarajevo -- which lies in the middle of the snow-capped Dinaric Alps -- bought off all the stockpiles of electric heaters in the city’s shops.
Some travelled as far as to the town of Mostar in the south to buy heaters. Those who were too late had to resort to buying wood stoves and wood supplies.
Severed gas supplies on Tuesday afternoon forced Birac alumina smelter in the eastern town of Zvornik and ArcelorMittal smelter in Zenica to almost completely shut down production. Company officials said the haphazard shutdown could have devastating effects for the firms.
“Dramatic situation in the Birac factory,” was a headline in Sarajevo daily Dnevni Avaz on Thursday.
The population in Zvornik and Zenica depend almost solely on the two smelters for heating. Together with the Bosnian capital, in these three cities some 100,000 households or an estimated 300,000 people have been left without heating and hot water.
This has also affected many premises such as kindergartens, schools, hospitals, businesses and others, which depended on gas for heating or production. Local authorities said they will have to close most of them down unless gas supplies are reopened as soon as possible.
Meteorologists forecast a further drop in temperatures, expected to fall to -13 Celsius in the capital on Thursday night.