Thick blanket of smog

Bosnia: Toxic air paralyzes the city of Sarajevo

(Bild: kameraOne (Screenshot))

The Bosnian capital Sarajevo is struggling with extreme winter smog pollution, which is massively affecting the lives of its inhabitants. Air traffic has been suspended. The population has been asked to stay indoors.

The public health service advised the city's citizens to avoid being outdoors as much as possible. Anyone who still has to go out into the street should wear a mask with a filter if possible to prevent damage to their health, the authorities said. On Thursday, the air quality index reached the critical value of 225. The smog is particularly dangerous for heart and respiratory patients.

Dirty brown fog soup
A thick, dirty brown soup of fog has been spreading in Sarajevo since late Wednesday evening. On Thursday, hardly anything of the city could be seen from the local mountain, Trebevic. Only the top of the 172-metre-high Avaz Tower - the tallest building in Bosnia-Herzegovina and home to the media group of the same name - stood out from the smog.

(Bild: kameraOne (Screenshot))

Only the top of the 172-meter-high Avaz Tower, the tallest building in Bosnia-Herzegovina, stood out from the smog.

(Bild: Associated Press)

Boiler location favors smog formation
Smog is a recurring problem every winter that makes life difficult for the citizens of Sarajevo. Polluted air from heating systems and cars is mixed into the fog, which is favored by the city's basin location. Other major cities in the Balkans also have problems with air pollution in winter - such as the Serbian capital Belgrade and Skopje in North Macedonia.

3300 Bosnians die every year due to bad air
According to the World Bank, an estimated 3300 people die prematurely every year in Bosnia as a result of air pollution, which corresponds to nine percent of the country's total annual mortality rate. Sarajevo and the north-western city of Banja Luka account for around 16 percent of this health burden.