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Title: Pollution Disaster at Heidelberg Cement Plant in Georgia View count: 3689 Rating: 5.0 (3 ratings) Description: Filmed near Rustavi in Georgia, on Friday Sept. 26. This chimnee belongs to plant operated by Heidelberg Cement, one of the biggest cement producers in the world. Jobs and economic growth or clean air? This heavily polluting plant offers work for about 1,000 people, but puts farmers in the region out of business, not to speak of the health consequences of the people living here. Prisoners at nearby prisons west of the Heidelberg chimnee, where most of the dust fell down as we visited, have complained to the GEorgian parliament, and Heidelberg appears to have promised Georgia to invest 12 million euro in a filtering system before the end of 2008. Cement plants cause 5% of global carbon dioxide emissions. A Cambridge University study says cement is the single biggest material source of carbon emissions. From http://www.heidelbergcement.com: "Climate protection and conserving natural resources are a matter of priority for our objectives in environmental protection." "In May 2006, HeidelbergCement purchased a stake of 51% in the Georgian cement grinding plant Kartuli Cementi; this was HeidelbergCements first investment in the Caucasus region. The plant is located in Rustavi, 50 km from the Georgian capital Tbilisi. In the meantime the plant has been extended and transformed into an integrated cement plant. The new plant with a cement capacity of 400,000 tonnes was commissioned in early 2008. At the end of 2006 HeidelbergCement acquired a stake of 75% in Saqcementi, the largest cement producer in the Caucasus region. Saqcementi operates two cement plants (Kaspi and Rustavi) near the capital Tbilisi with a total capacity of 1.6 million tonnes of cement. Georgia is a strategically well located country with a big potential for growth. It benefits from the transport of oil from neighbouring Azerbaijan and is also a transit country between the Black and the Caspian Sea. Therefore, further economic growth, large investments in infrastructural projects and a significant increase in cement consumption are expected. Saqcementi is the market leader in Georgia with a share of around 60% and, in addition, supplies Azerbaijan (market share of around 20%) and Kazakhstan. Saqcementi and Kartuli Cementi operate on the market under the common brand of HeidelbergCement Georgia. Also read: http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/10/21/business/cement.php Tags: pollution, rustavi, cement, factory, plant, heidelberg, heidelbergcement, concrete, air, emissions, dust, fine, news, eux.tv, eux, brussels, eu, europe, eutube, european elections, 2009, european union, european parliament, europeanunion, europeanparliament, euxtv, Author: EUXTV |
