Kosice, SLOVAKIA

Partnername	Location
City of Košice	Country	Slovakia
	Region	Vychodne Slovensko
	City	Košice

PHASE 1 Identification & selection

Košice is located in the eastern part of Slovakia close to the Hungarian, Ukrainian and Polish boders. This location makes Košice an important crossroad of trade routes. Nowadays the city is a key economic centre with a railway hub and international airport. It is also a historical centre because of its own coat-of-arms- decree, the International Peace Marathon and the St. Elisabeth Cathedral.

Košice would like to improve the social, economic and public health conditions of the city by reclamation of illegal waste dumps in the city territory.

Myslava landfill

This landfill is located at the urban area of the city. The nearest residential zone with a Roma community is some 500 metres. The total area of sevaral landfill bodies is about 17.3 hectares. It is located in a valley separating residential area on the one hand and the Baška brook that flows into the Hornad River at the other hand. The biggest landfill body is about 1000 metres long and 40 metres high. Mostly a mix of urban and industrial waste has been dumped without any environmental control since the 1970's. The landfill was originally created by illegal dumping of the valley, owned by several hundreds of private owners. In 1972 the area came under control of a city company as a temporarily landfill untill a new incineration plant should be build. However the dumpung activities lasted untill 2007.

Redevelopment of the Myslava landfill

Košice is aware how serious the environmental burden is of the Myslava landfill and would like to improve the area. New urban settlements adjacent to the city boroughs are not planned because of the landfill. Already a wide range of surveys and studies have been carried out analysing the environmental risks and proposing technical aftercare measures to controll these risks. The entire surface of the landfill body will be sealed and eventually the landfill should be integrated with the surrounding environment and landscape by planting trees.

In order to construct the redevelopment of the Myslava landfill the following stages are planned:

Clearing the area and ground shaping
Landfill closure and planning redevelopment
Degasification
Planting trees and landscaping
Service road and water removal
Stabilisation of the landfill body
Cleaning the brook bed
and installing observation wells

A big challenge is to involve all owners of the plots. At the moment the City succeeded in having a preliminary agreement that would make redevelopment possible. Other challenges are the need of a law on old environmental burdens, close cooperation with all public authorities involved, allocation of sufficient financial funding and implementation of an efficient and environmentally controlled waste management system.