Dutch Energy Supplies Partly Derived from Columbian Blood Coals

Coal imported into the Netherlands which provide a substantial part of the energy of the country, is partly ‘blood coal’ from Columbia. The Volkskrant daily visited the Cesar region of Columbia, from which more than half of its coal exports to the Netherlands. The coal industry there makes agriculture impossible and causes lung disease among the population. Child prostitution and venereal disease have increased greatly since the opening of the mines. Already in 2010, the Columbian Ministry of Environment decided that three villages have to be moved in view of the huge air pollution. The mining companies have still not provided adequate housing for the population to be moved. Critics of the coal mines receive death threats. Dutch Minister of Foreign Trade Lilianne Ploumen (Labor Party) said that efforts to deal with the problem have so far been unsuccessful. www.volkskrant.nl/vk/nl/2664/Nieuws/article/detail/3606789/2014/03/04/Nederlandse-energiecentrales-draaien-nog-op-bloedkolen.dhtml