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These painful photos show a ‘ghost’ village in Romania flooded by the toxic waters of a mining plant, with only a high roof still visible, about four decades after its inhabitants were forcibly evacuated.
All that remains of the Geamana community near Mount Apuseni in western Romania is the top of a church rising over a toxic lake, solidified over time, some destroyed houses and abandoned farming equipment.
Rare drone footage from Geamana tells of the tragedy of villagers who were forced to flee their homes in 1978 to make way for the poisonous flow of treated water from a nearby copper mine.
The images come at a time of growing awareness of the consequences of human activity in the environment, as seen in the once picturesque village, formerly inhabited by about 400 families.
The toxic lake rises to a level of about 1 meter each year, which means that the church spiral, along with other buildings, will soon be invisible.
Residents were angry with authorities who had promised to relocate at least the cemetery located around the church.
But as the mining activity continued, the lake of contaminated waste grew day by day, quickly covering the lands around the church and the cemetery of the villagers.
Acid lake contains cyanide, which is used in the extraction process, which is a highly toxic substance with severe environmental impact, as well as poisonous to animals and rivers.
Speaking in 2019, Romanian photographer and activist Cristian Lipovan, 36, who frequently visits the lake and witnesses its further sinking each year, recounted the experience of documenting the slow destructive process.
“Geamana is an extinct village, a ghost village swallowed up by colorful poison,” Lipovan said. “The liquid that surrounds the hills is red, and it shows that everything is poisoned, water, grass, trees, fruits, vegetables, animals and finally man.”
Lipovan goes on to say: “The lake is constantly growing and some people have stayed living near the village, they live with the risk of poisoning every day.”
“The atmosphere here is rude and psychedelic, unnatural colors, unfortunate people living here eating, drinking and breathing poison.”
“The sad story here began in 1977, when the communist dictator displaced the population by making available the lands for the opening of the Rosia Poieni copper mine,” Lipovan said in 2019.
“It is the largest copper mine in Romania and at that time the largest in Europe. “Now it is building an ecological bomb in the Apuseni Mountains.”
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