Not too far away from a place we've seen in my previous post from the peak of Detunatele called Roșia Poieni
, we also manage to discover one more gem unique in the world that offers the same view to the mine, because yes - Roșia Poieni is not just another very important village from Transylvania, but also the place that caused the disaster that nowadays we call it Geamăna, and which can be recognized only from the old pictures that show how normal life used to look like.
During the time I've got to visit so many places from my country, most of them barely known or actually promoted perhaps at all, that made me realize how blessed I'm am to make some steps in some unique places in the world that most of the people get to admire only from pictures.
We all know that communism is not one of the best periods our parents/grandparents got to live, and if we look back then, we will notice that many places we visit nowadays are more or less connected to it.
Just think how many dams, artificial lakes, and many more, were created by sacrificing hundreds of peoples' houses and even lives.
I know examples from my country and there are not few. At all.
I would actually call them disasters, in a way or another, but the subject of today's post it's a beautiful disaster only for those who get to visit what is left from a little village from Transylvania, while the locals, which are no more than 20, are waiting for their death.
To start with the beginning of the story, Geamăna is a village from Alba County, located in the Apuseni Mountains which used to be a normal place until 1977 when their lives have completely changed in just a matter of time.
While the Roșia Poieni Mine was already in full swing, the Romania's president of those times, Nicolae Ceaușescu, asked the locals of Geamăna to evacuate the village because it was going to be transformed into a tailings lake where the toxic waste of the copper mine are going to be deposited.
The village had around 400 families who were living there and all they had and built in their entire life, was located in the tiny village that was going to be soon just a memory.
The thing that made most of the locals give up on everything they had was the fake promises offered by the president who was engaging himself into moving all those families on just 7km away from their previous village, as well as giving lands and enough money so they can build the life they had before, very fast. Of course nothing from these never happened.
The locals were moved around 100km away from their previous hometown, as well as receiving almost nothing to create a new life, but actually very few money that wasn't enough just for food or to build a part of a new house.
Around 20 locals of the village refused to respect the commandment and they continued to live their lives like nothing was going to happen.
Some of them died, some of them are waiting for their death.
If we take a look to the whole landscape, we are not sure if we should feel fascinated by the many colours a single lake can have, because I counted around 13 different shades and various states of aggregation, or if we should be sad by all the disaster created by someone who put first his interests before the others'.
In reality, I think no one can be happy for how the very few people left are forced to live, because yes, we got to speak with an old woman who was very kind to share with us the whole experience that they had to accept and is not known by anyone else.
It was one of these perfect days of the summer when the grandchildren were spending their holidays to the countryside with their grandparents and enjoy the fresh air of the mountains while collecting forest fruits from the peaks of the mountains.
The precious moments every grandparent lives for didn't last too much, because the whole ground started being painted in lots of colours, from white to blue, from green to red, from yellow to bloody red, and so on. The single explanation the old woman could give to her grandchildren were that the lands are being painted exactly the same way they paint at schools different moments of life, but in reality, the president was already starting to eliminate the toxic waste extracted from the mine, through the soil.
During the disaster, many people died, lots of animals were swallowed by the cyanide, and hundreds of houses, as well as a church and a cemetery, disappeared in just a moment.
The only thing left which reminds of the whole world that is hidden under the toxic lake is the tower of the church that most probably will disappear in 2 or 3 years from now on, because with each passing year, the volume of the lake is being increased with 90-100 centimetres.
The 20 people that managed to continue their living in the swallowed village are those which were lucky enough to have their houses located on a higher altitude than most of the people had, as well as those who started to build a new house at the peak of the mountains and move their animals and everything they had.
The number of 20 people left is being offered by the internet, but we did spend almost the entire day in that place and we didn't manage to find more than 10 people.
Either way, they do believe that destiny is the one who placed their houses higher up the hill, otherwise, they would be just some of the many who are forced to see their houses disappearing under the toxic lake.
The people left do have a different life now, which is not even close to what they built so far, and all the events occurred changed not only their way of living but also the way of seeing things and wanting to see any other persons anymore.
Most of them are kind of decivilized right now, the only thing they care anymore being the little part of the land they can call home.
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Another important aspect to be mentioned is that to reach the village (or what is left from it) becomes a true challenge.
There is no road to it because the ways used to get to Geamăna were also swallowed by the toxic lake, so people improvised a way up to the hills left and it takes a few hours for a person to climb all that way up to the top.
We managed to cross half of the way by car and it took more than an hour due to the inaccessible road which made the car engine die a few times, as well as forcing the wheels to not slide back to where we started.
There's no market in the village left, nor a pharmacy, and most of the people left are only old people who are waiting for their death.
The woman we had the honour to talk with, confessed that it's impossible for them to grow vegetables in their own harvest because even though their houses are not touching the lake, the whole ground is poisoned with the many chemicals that are flowing through them, and it's literally a slow way to death, especially that they are not able to spend every day so many hours on the way just to reach a pharmacy or market for food.
Despite the whole disaster we got to see, the most emotional moment was when the woman we've spent some precious time talking, was smiling.
She never stopped smiling even when she was sharing all the painful memories that are keeping her soul busy, and it's definitely not an easy thing especially when you are alone and get to see a few people only once in a while but which are visitors to something that is killing you slowly.
Not only the lake which is for sure going to kill or burn alive any human that gets in contact with its toxicity, but also the air which is very hard to be breath.
The smell is incredibly hard to be breath because you can feel its toxicity even before reaching the lake or getting close to it, and the most powerful area is where the chemicals are still flowing and stimulating the lake's level.
We did have some serious dizziness and headaches not only that day but the one after it too.
The mine that is the main reason for today's disaster, is the 2nd largest copper mine from Europe, and the biggest one from Romania right now, where not even the disappearance of lots of houses and families didn't make the exploitation stop. It's the real proof of not caring what the few locals left have to fight with everyday and the chase after money that has no limits.
The toxic lake that covers a surface of 130 hectares becomes way more dreadful when the single noise you can hear through the silence which you can feel screaming for help, are the thick pipes that are never stopping the elimination of chemicals.
More and more trees are drying even if they are not even close to the water level and the birds stopped flying around long time ago, but miracles still exist.
Because no matter how many disasters a human is able to create, there's always someone up there who fights until the last moment on saving what is left - this is how, ironically, even though the chemicals eliminated into the lake are very powerful, there is also chalk coming from the copper mine which contributes in diluting the toxicity of the lake.
But the risk is being increased with each passing year because the apocalyptic lake is being held by an artificial dam which is being forced even more during heavy rains in that area.
The saddest part is that the exploitation of the Rosia Poieni Copper Mine is not even close to the end, because there are produced 11,000 tons of copper every year which make the manager forget about the more important toxic waste stored over peoples' houses and many things that were sacrificed just for the sake of getting rich financially but not spiritually.
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As I previously mentioned, there are lots of shades to the same lake without being interrupted by any dam, but there are also four different forms of aggregation which can be found.
The first one people get to see is the grey one, which is most likely a mud pit, or a huge swamp, caused by the tailings deposits that are coming from the copper mine.
Basically, all the copper extracted from the mine needs to be washed with neutralizing substances that remove any impurity and helps the greedy people get the copper mine in its natural form.
The tailings dump is incredibly toxic not only for humans but for nature too.
That's how no matter if it's a tree, a bush or simple grass - if it gets in contact with the toxic mud, it dries instantly and dies.
The entire story becomes even more painful when you get closer to the mud and notice some traces of hooves which are visible only until a point and then it's history.
Most likely the very few animals who were left for the locals of the village were too curious to find out what happened with the place that someday used to be their area for pasturage and never returned.
Unfortunately, not only the lake but the entire ground is contaminated with chemicals and it affects other rivers where this one overflows.
The water which some time ago used to be potable is also poisoned and this is how the old people of the village are needed to walk lots of kilometres until they get to a safe spring from where they can get fresh and safe water to drink.
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The 2nd form you will discover is the most toxic one, either orange or red.
This is being formed after heavy rains when the water gets in contact with the chemicals that are coming from the copper mine but also cyanide which is just another poison used for the copper while it kills nature.
The cyanide is basically the salt from hydrocyanic acid that it's being born when a metal (copper) gets in contact with the cyanogen.
Anyway, the results are very toxic and dangerous because they do burn and melt anything in just a few seconds, not to mention what happens if a human being or animal falls into the toxic lake...
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A more catastrophic landscape is offered by the part of the lake where the form of aggregation is already solid and most likely a broken soil during the summer, or like a dry lava.
But the biggest problem is that on this side of the lake is also the dam I mentioned about a little bit before.
Where as you can see, the level of the lake is pretty close to the top of the dam - a huge risk considering that the lake's level is being increased around 1m height with each passing year.
And the last shade of the lake you can discover is close to its normal colour.
Or how a normal lake should look like.
This area is pretty small though, and even so, it's still a poisoned part of the lake that hides an entire village under 100 meters in depth with many chemicals that are going through the soils.
Most probably the green water we see, won't last for too long and it will also become soon a memory, unfortunately...
Sadly the history might repeat again, because we have another important mine known as Rosia Montana which is a gold mine (the biggest one from Europe), and for many years there were lots of fights to start to clean the metals the same way as it happened to Geamana - by flooding an entire village with the chemicals.
It's not the first time when it's being proven how corrupted the Romanian government is and that it's incapable of maintaining a high environmental standard. The corruption is running through the country's leadership and basically even though the people are aware of this tragedy, there is nothing they can do. Therefore a thing is clear - no one is ready for another disaster like the one from Geamana and every underground resource can come at a great cost that many people will have to account for.
SEE YOU IN THE NEXT TRIP! 🗾
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