Bukinje

There are about six hundred people living in Bukinje next to Bosnia & Herzegowinas biggest power-plant, about eighty percent of the Bosnian electricity is produced there. Instead of using new technology to filter the air or use renewable energy the power-plant and the government has no intention to help the people living there. In addition to that some part of the electricity is exported to the EU so there is a complicity in the suffering of the inhabitants.

The toxic waste is pumped into the seas, dries them out and pollute the groundwater. Because of a lack of money most of the inhabitants grow their own food which leads to a lot of diseases like cancer or asthma. But still most of the people try to make the best out of their situation and help each other as much as they can even if there is not much hope that something will change.

The responsibles of the power-plant try to make everything look fine but at a closer look it gets obvious that there is something wrong. The concrete walls next to the river, which prevent the ground of getting toxic by flooding are just built next to the power-plant and not along the whole river. Also most of the air measuring stations are switched off so that they can not send negative results.

In this project Thomas Morsch and Magnus Terhorst documented the daily life in Bukinje and draw a portrait of the small village and its inhabitants. They show how it feels to live next to a power-plant like that and how terrible the consequences are.

© Thomas Morsch Magnus Terhorst - Polluted lake near Bukinje
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Polluted lake near Bukinje

© Thomas Morsch Magnus Terhorst - Citizen of Bukinje
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Citizen of Bukinje

© Thomas Morsch Magnus Terhorst - A House next to the power-plant
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A House next to the power-plant

© Thomas Morsch Magnus Terhorst - Senad and his friend
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Senad and his friend

© Thomas Morsch Magnus Terhorst - The school is directly located next to the power-plant
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The school is directly located next to the power-plant

© Thomas Morsch Magnus Terhorst - Emina lost her daughter to cancer
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Emina lost her daughter to cancer

© Thomas Morsch Magnus Terhorst - Two rivers mixing up
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Two rivers mixing up

© Thomas Morsch Magnus Terhorst - Izet showing his operation scars
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Izet showing his operation scars

© Thomas Morsch Magnus Terhorst - Light bulb in one of the homes in Bukinje
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Light bulb in one of the homes in Bukinje

© Thomas Morsch Magnus Terhorst - Peter and Leon
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Peter and Leon

© Thomas Morsch Magnus Terhorst - One of the lakes near Bukinje
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One of the lakes near Bukinje

© Thomas Morsch Magnus Terhorst - TV in a small garage
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TV in a small garage

© Thomas Morsch Magnus Terhorst - Senad is not going to eat the apples from his garden because of the pollution
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Senad is not going to eat the apples from his garden because of the pollution

© Thomas Morsch Magnus Terhorst - Dryed ash-lake next to Bukinje
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Dryed ash-lake next to Bukinje

© Thomas Morsch Magnus Terhorst - Settlement next to the power-plant
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Settlement next to the power-plant

© Thomas Morsch Magnus Terhorst - Senad 'Roko' Isaković
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Senad 'Roko' Isaković

© Thomas Morsch Magnus Terhorst - The power-plant
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The power-plant

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