Many Czech households in rural areas use hazardous waste for heating thus creating poisonous gases that threaten their neighbors, a national daily reported Tuesday.
According to Pravo, the Environmental Inspection (CIZP) is helpless to stop the practice. Thousands of Czechs burn PET bottles, old shoes and other waste in their heating stoves, but they face practically no punishment.
"Every year we receive numerous complaints from residents... about their neighbors burning hazardous waste in their stoves and polluting the environment," Oldrich Janeba, of the CIZP, told the paper.
However, the Inspection has no legal tools to control "operators of heating appliances in private houses and private summer cottages."
The problem will be fixed when an amendment to the environmental protection law, endorsed by the government last November, is approved by parliament.
PRAGUE, January 5 (RIA Novosti)
