160. Smokestack Removal

My village had a coal burning boiler heating system for all of the buildings in the center of town.  When the Soviet Union fell the system could no longer be used because Moldova has no coal and it was impossible/very expensive to import coal.  The facility has been sitting unused for the last 20 years.  If you are interested in the history of heating in my village, see post number 122.

Within the last few years there have been talks of cutting down the 30 meter smokestack of the boiler facility because one of the supports broke and when there is a strong wind the smokestack sways quite violently.  There are a few homes within reach of the smokestack and the village was concerned that one day the smokestack could fall on some of their house.

The mayor’s office has worked on different ideas of taking down the smokestack for many years but the cost of renting the large crane needed would use all of the community’s reserves and the quality of smokestack’s metal was unclear, so it was difficult to estimate potential gains from selling it.

A volunteer advisor who has worked in many different countries and has assisted the organization I work with when it comes to ideas and finding monetary sources was concerned with the danger of the potentially falling smokestack.  The community, the NGO I work with and the volunteer advisor worked together to remove the smokestack.

The funds were donated by a large group of widows in Germany, which was collected a few euro at a time.  The smokestack was then cut into two meter lengths and sold to people in the village with the idea that they would be used to make bio-waste heating systems (that would burn straw, corn stalks and other agricultural products generally not highly used) for homes.  The money raised from the sale of the smokestack and the recycling of the metal in the interior of the boiling facility is being used to purchase supplies to make and install sidewalks throughout our village.