The second March for Clean Air, Forests, Health and Future will be organized on Saturday, April 6, 2024, in Corbeanca. Citizens of Ilfov and Bucharest are invited to join

As a result, the Activ Corbeanca Association with the support of the Civic Platform Together for the Green Belt organizes Saturday, April 6, 2024, at 11 a.m. (parents with children who want to participate in a workshop on environmental and pollution topics are expected from 10:30 a.m.), starting from Corbeanca Park (Ogorului street, Corbeanca commune, https://maps.app.goo.gl/QHteF3jT5FG5vksR6), the second March for Clean Air, Forests, Health and Future to ask the national, county and local authorities immediate measures for

The Activ Corbeanca Association (www.activcorbeanca.ro) and the Civic Platform Together for the Green Belt (www.centuraverde.ro) urge and invite the communities of Ilfov and Bucharest, citizens of all ages, from young to old, to join this march NON-POLITICAL and to claim the right to clean air and a healthy environment, as it is, moreover, also stipulated in the Romanian Constitution. The event is part of a series of actions that will be organized in Ilfov, in the capital and anywhere in the country where necessary, as long as it is needed. The Activ Corbeanca Association is a member of the Civic Platform Together for the Green Belt.

After, in recent weeks, in Corbeanca and its surroundings, the illegal burning of waste made the air unbreathable, a fact also proven by the monitoring sensors, hundreds of Corbeanca residents protested on Saturday, March 23, alongside neighbors from Balotești, Mogoșoaia and Buftea, in an unprecedented anti-pollution march for the communities of Ilfov. The lack of involvement of the authorities at all levels has brought people to the streets. In an action that took place over three kilometers and lasted three hours, the participants chanted “We want clean air”, “No pollution”, “Forests for people”, “We want the Green Belt”, “No illegal burning” or “Ilfov clean”.

In Romania, annually 29,000 people die prematurely due to air pollution. We are the country in the European Union with the highest social cost of health associated with it.

For many years, Bucharest has been in the top 3 of the most polluted capitals in the EU, recording also the biggest budget losses associated with the treatment of diseases caused or worsened by air pollution, with an annual loss of EUR 6.35 billion.

Residents of Bucharest could have a four-year longer life expectancy. That’s the official conclusion of a 2020 report from the National Institute of Public Health. This would happen if the authorities met the targets they had already set for combating pollution.

With all the pollution in the city and the disappearance of the last forests around it, we are running out of air. We will not have clean air in Bucharest as long as, beyond the anti-pollution measures taken inside it and the fight against the illegal burning of waste in Ilfov, there will not be a green belt surrounding the capital in the county, as is the case in the great metropolises of the world . The development of the city is closely related to what is happening and will happen in Ilfov.

The Bucharest-Ilfov Green Belt is a public health project with a strong social and anti-pollution component, as well as mitigating the effects of climate change, part of a systemic solution that also involves a significant environmental component.

At the same time, through an online petition that has already collected over 11,500 signatures, (https://campaniamea.declic.ro/p/ImpreunaPentruCenturaVerde) the Civic Platform Together for the Green Belt invites citizens to join in asking political decision-makers and executive concrete measures for Clean Air, Health and Future.

Alex Găvan, founder of the Civic Platform Together for the Green Belt:

“A city cannot be healthy as long as its people are sick. And at the same time, healthy people cannot live in a sick city. Pollution has no regard for administrative borders or who or what we each are. Pollution does not take into account where Ilfovul ends and Bucharest begins. She kills real and indiscriminately. Exceptional circumstances, such as we now find ourselves in, call for exceptional actions and measures, call for exceptional vision and exceptional boldness. And exceptional ethics. And all this can only be done animated by an exceptional love. I gratefully invite you to be together on April 6 at the March for Clean Air, Forests, Health and the Future”.

Sorin Jula, president of the Activ Corbeanca Association:

“Almost 4 years ago, our association formulated the petition Vrem Aer Curat in Ilfov, addressed to the Ministry of the Environment, in which more than 2,700 residents of the county reported the extremely polluted air, proposed and requested the institution to take urgent measures. Our approach went unanswered. This time, together with other organizations and good people in the community, we will go all the way. Come with us in a march of awareness of our role in the city! Through our power and trust we have granted the right to decide for us. Our collective presence at the March for Clean Air, Forests, Health and the Future is also to remind us that democracy means we all matter. Give everyone two hours of your time for a march for all of Ilfov and the capital. We know that not tomorrow we will get rid of polluted air, garbage, soil and poisoned water, but we also know that it takes all of us for change. We start with changing our attitude so that then comes the change of those who have a role in deciding for us. Together!”.

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