Words and images by Nick St.Oegger | Website | Instagram
Sarajevo is arguably one of the most visually interesting cities in Europe. With a mixture of Ottoman, Austro-Hungarian, Yugoslav and modernist architecture and a skyline dotted with a seemingly endless number of minarets, Bosnia’s capital sprawls across a valley and into the foothills of the surrounding Dinaric Alps. When I first moved there in the autumn of 2019, I was instantly smitten with city, never tiring of long daily walks to explore new neighbourhoods and vistas. “Just wait until the smog comes,” a longtime resident told me, “you might change your mind then.”
During the winter Sarajevo often holds the infamous distinction of being the most polluted city in the world, with levels of harmful PM 2.5 particles pushing over 500 on the Air Quality Index, beating out megacities like Shanghai, Dhaka, and New Delhi. The same valley that gives the city such a unique atmosphere is also to blame for keeping it blanketed in dense smog, with the phenomenon of temperature inversion preventing polluted cold air from rising above a higher layer of warm air.
The issue is compounded by the widespread use of wood, low-quality coal, and other fuels for the heating of private households, many of which lack any form of central heating. This has also driven a trend of illegal logging and subsequent deforestation on sections of the nearby mountains. Local industry and numerous ageing cars from the 1970s and 80s are also contributors to this deadly mixture. According to the World Health Organisation, Bosnia is among the top three countries in the world with the highest mortality rate due to air pollution, with roughly 550 per 100,000 people dying from issues related to air contamination every year.
Late last year, EU Ambassador Johann Sattler recorded a public service video with Bosnian footballer Semir Štilić, raising awareness about air quality issues in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Framing clean air as a “right”, Sattler touched on the associated economic issues resulting from air pollution, the high cost of workplace absenteeism, and strain on the healthcare system from smog-induced illnesses. The European Union’s Green Deal initiative aims to make the continent carbon neutral by 2050 and includes provisions that could benefit neighbouring countries as well.
Yet, as Bosnia and Herzegovina struggles to recover 25 years on from its brutal civil war, other issues have taken precedence over what is perceived as a potentially costly move to more stringent environmental standards. Detractors in the government point to the inability of many low-income families to afford non-coal heating, or newer cars that produce lower CO2 emissions, suggesting the issue of air quality is simply one that cannot be tackled at the moment.
Thus, for the time being, residents of Sarajevo and other cities around Bosnia remain resigned to their fate, buying home air purifiers, masks, and checking daily air quality on mobile apps before venturing out into surreal, smoke-filled streets.