Ecological catastrophe — poisoned land, water and air

In addition to the direct human casualties, the NATO bombing of Serbia in 1999 caused an ecological catastrophe whose consequences are still felt today. The systematic destruction of industrial plants — refineries, chemical factories, power plants — released enormous quantities of toxic substances into the air, water and soil, turning parts of Serbia into an ecological wasteland.

Pančevo — a chemical hell

The most heavily affected city was Pančevo, an industrial center north of Belgrade, on the bank of the Danube. NATO repeatedly bombed three key industrial facilities:

The oil refinery: Bombed several times, completely destroyed. Fires that burned for days released enormous quantities of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons into the atmosphere.

The petrochemical complex „HIP Petrohemija“: Hits on the plant for the production of vinyl chloride monomer (VCM) released more than 2,000 tons of this extremely toxic and carcinogenic gas. Vinyl chloride is a known carcinogen that causes liver cancer and angiosarcoma.

The fertilizer factory „HIP Azotara“: The bombing of the ammonia storage released thousands of tons of this poisonous gas. The ammonia cloud spread over the city and surrounding settlements, forcing the evacuation of the population.

The combined effect of these three catastrophes was terrifying. Above Pančevo a toxic cloud formed that contained a mixture of vinyl chloride, ammonia, sulfur dioxide, mercaptans and other poisonous substances. For days and weeks the citizens inhaled this cocktail of poisons, without adequate protection.

The Danube and the waterways

Through the bombing of industrial facilities, enormous quantities of toxic materials reached the Danube — the second-longest European river, which flows through ten countries. It was estimated that the following reached the Danube from the destroyed plants in Pančevo, Novi Sad and other cities:

• Over 80,000 tons of oil and petroleum products
• Thousands of tons of vinyl chloride and other organic compounds
• Heavy metals — mercury, lead, cadmium
• Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) — carcinogenic substances

The pollution of the Danube affected not only Serbia but also Romania, Bulgaria and the other countries downstream. Fish died en masse, and drinking water from the Danube was unusable for months.

Novi Sad — destroyed infrastructure

In Novi Sad, the bombing of the oil refinery and petrochemical plants polluted the city's surroundings. All the bridges over the Danube in Novi Sad were destroyed, and their ruins fell into the river, further polluting the waterway and blocking navigation.

Kragujevac, Bor, Kruševac

The ecological consequences of the bombing were felt across Serbia:

• Kragujevac: The bombing of the Zastava factory caused fires in which plastic, rubber and chemicals burned
• Bor: Strikes on the mining and metallurgical complex released heavy metals into the surroundings
• Kruševac: The bombing of the chemical industry polluted the surrounding waterways

The UNEP report

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) carried out an assessment of the ecological damage in Serbia in 1999 and 2000. Their report confirmed serious contamination at several locations and recommended urgent remediation. However, the remediation was slow and incomplete, partly because of the destroyed infrastructure, and partly because of the lack of financial resources in a Serbia exhausted by sanctions.

Long-term consequences

The ecological consequences of the NATO bombing did not end with the cessation of the war. The contamination of the soil and groundwater will last for decades. The rise in malignant diseases in Pančevo and its surroundings is directly linked to exposure to toxic substances during and after the bombing. Studies by the Faculty of Medicine in Belgrade show a statistically significant increase of certain types of cancer in the contaminated areas.

The land in the vicinity of the destroyed plants is contaminated with heavy metals and organic pollutants that will decompose over decades, perhaps centuries. The people who live in those areas are still exposed today to elevated levels of toxic substances.

An invisible war that continues

The ecological catastrophe caused by the NATO bombing is a war that never ended. The bombs stopped falling on 10 June 1999, but the poisons they released continue to kill — silently, invisibly, inexorably. Every child born in Pančevo, every fisherman on the Danube, every worker in the contaminated soil — all of them bear the consequences of the decision to bomb chemical factories in the midst of civilian settlements.

NATO knew what was in those factories. It knew that their destruction would release toxic substances. And it bombed them nonetheless. The ecological catastrophe that followed was not „collateral damage“ — it was the foreseeable consequence of conscious decisions. Lest we forget.