Waste waters from the coal processing plant are not piped, but streamed in open channels to the Kolubara River without any preliminary treatment or purification.

A Vreoci resident stands by the pool of waste water that ends at the center of the village. Waste water from the coal processing flows out untreated and uncooled. In the waste water can be found traces of heavy metals. Underground water is unusable.

Vreoci residents in front of the open mine, only 40 metres from their home. Citizens are constantly exposed to the vibrations, dust, noise and fumes from the mining. The local water supply works only every two hours and pollution is unabated; The problem of pollution in Vreoci is even more enlarged because of preparatory work on the extension of the open pit, and heavy equipment is always present in the settlement.

A Serbian couple stands in front of their home, which sits only 40 metres from the open field of the coal mine. Without running water or a telephone line, and both on medications, they have been waiting three years to resettle. Their house is the only one left in the neighbourhood.

Railroad tracks in Serbia. Serbia is a middle-income country and one of only a handful of European states that remain on the OECD list of countries eligible for official development assistance, or aid. With unemployment at 27% and rising daily, job creation is an urgent priority.

Kolubara mine workers cleaning the road. Despite growing distrust of the EPS and ongoing health problems in the community, the majority of Vreoci citizens depend on the Kolubara mining and power plants for employment.

The Serbian energy sector is presently in disastrous financial shape. With widespread poverty, a struggling industrial sector, lack of energy efficiency measure, and claims of poor management, the EPS is currently unable to recover their costs of electricity supply.

This is the last gravestone left from what used to be a cemetery in Vreoci. The Electric Power Industry of Serbia conducted exhumation of the local cemetery to make way for coal extraction at the nearby Kolubara mine without the consent of the villagers. Vreoci cemetery lies on an estimated 50 million tonnes of lignite coal and its exhumation was a precondition for digging an additional 600 million tonnes of lignite lying under the Vreoci municipality.

With its headquarters in London, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development is an international financial institution owned by 64 (mostly European) countries. Its mandate is to promote private sector development and open market economies.

These are the remains of a demolished house in Vreoci. The Electric Power Industry of Serbia (EPS) has delayed relocation of the villagers. Some houses have been removed and the families’ resettled, while other families remain without running water or telephone lines, waiting indefinitely.