page_title: Environmental racism in Europe
section_title: Pata Rât dump and chemical waste site
hierarchical_section_title: Environmental racism in Europe / Central and Eastern Europe / Romania / Pata Rât dump and chemical waste site
caption_attribution_description: English: Cluj landfill, Pata Rât, 2014. Image also depicts Romani settlement and an unidentified youth. Taken with OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
context_page_description: Environmental racism is a term used by Enikő Vincze for "the practice of environmental injustice within a racialized context", in which "socially marginalized communities and minority groups" are subjected to disproportionate exposure of environmental hazards, denial of access to sources of ecological sustenance such as clean air, water, and natural resources, or infringement of environmentally related human rights.
  According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency, environmental justice is "the fair treatment for people of all races, cultures, and incomes, regarding the development of environmental laws, regulations and policies".
  As applied to Europe, patterns of "environmental racism" have been postulated in particular toward Romani communities.
  According to Trehan and Kocze, "EU accession for the post-socialist countries has resulted in a de facto centre and periphery within Europe itself, thus exacerbating the already marginal economic and political position of Roma in Europe whose communities continue to subsist as internal colonies within Europe."
context_section_description: In Pata Rât, Cluj County, Romani persons scavenge from a dump as their primary source of income. As of 2013, it was estimated that 1,500 people were living at the site in extreme poverty; in the 1960s, only four families were documented as living there. Today, there are a total of four separate settlements at the Pata Rât dump; 42% of residents were moved to the site by local authorities. The overwhelming majority of residents are from the Romani minority, many of whom work at the site in slave-like conditions of indentured or bonded labour while the Romanian government and private contractors maintain ownership of the waste. Journalists are unwelcome at the site, where filming is strictly prohibited.
  According to Enikő Vincze, "the formation of the Cluj landfill as a space of precarious and stigmatized housing and labour, is a site of environmental racism". Predominantly Romani neighbourhoods from throughout the city of Cluj have been evicted and relocated to the dump since 2002. Many different Romani subgroups, further divided by family lines, have been settled into an area near the dump on Cantonului Street, causing inter-community tensions and violence. In 2010, 300 residents of Coastei street were evicted and resettled at the dump near a chemical waste site. The newly vacated neighbourhood was subsequently transferred, for free, to the Archbishop of Feleac and Cluj for the purpose of constructing a campus for students of Orthodox Theology at the Babes-Bolyai University of Cluj.
  In spite of the traumatic nature of the relocation, the Romani community of Coastei Street, which was well integrated in the city and closely connected with urban services, engaged in organized efforts to maintain their social connections to Cluj (such as sending their children to their old schools in the city, and by organizing to ensure access to public transit). With support from NGO's such as the European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC), Working Group of Civil Organizations (gLOC), and Amnesty International, these efforts, which included protests in Cluj, culminated in the formal acquisition of land at Pata Rât. On January 7, 2014, Cluj-Napoca County Court (Tribunal) ruled that the eviction and relocation from Coastei Street was illegal, ordering city authorities to compensate the Romani community for damages, and to also provide compensation for the inadequate housing situation caused by the relocation.
caption: Cluj landfill, Pata Rât.
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