How sinkholes are threatening to swallow this Polish town | Focus on Europe 

companies runed by the state.

In communist Poland, they were most likely owned and run by the state.

I can easily pass the blame to the construction company and the government approval of construction before doing any research. Assume I am representing the coal company.

What companies dude ?! Under communists everything belonged to the state,so companies are the Polish people.

@@valevisa8429 Just take that as an example. Its hard to blame any coal company in this case, because if there was mining done on this land, then it should be assumed that the land was compromised, and gov and constructors should have done some research. You cant blame the miners. If I build a house next to an active volcano... you know where I'm going with this..

They don't have mortgages, most of that land was offered for free :)

​@@vladnickuland the houses built themselves

no. but the apartaments are again (mostly) free, @@patrykK1028

Yrs, some of the land might have been offered after war which means 80 yeats ago. That means also that the inital owner could sell it on the market. Now you have mortgages. So please do not say there is no problem as those people dont have mortgages to pay.

25 years? More like 40 or even 50 in former communist countries with our salaries. 😀

"Needed:" they wanted.

​​@@brownmoldIt's a little bit more tricky. The town was built to house the workers of the mine, but at that time they took the iron ore from a mountain. That mountain is long gone and they continued to go downwards. They now know that it is the biggest coherent iron ore find. And it goes 2km (~1250 miles) down. They didn't mine under the town. But cracks appeared and they had no option but to relocate 20 buildings. Problems continued and an earthquake was caused by the mining operations and now they will eventually relocate everyone. In this case it is the government that owns the mine and not only is it the biggest in the world, it produces 80% of the iron to the whole of Europe. It is also the most modern and environmentally friendly mine in the world. All of this in a time when there is war and other problems in the world and EU is looking to minimise its dependency on other countries. I think they have handled it correctly. Nobody new this could happen when they found the ore in the 1600s or when they started big scale mining in the 1800s.

I forgot to mention that the people living there, doesn't own their homes (the town was built for housing the workers), they rent them from the company (the government). So in essence, they will get new homes and unfortunately they will have to pay a little more rent, because building houses with today's standards, cost more money than the old rent can cover.

That's possible in an artificial, previously unhabitated area like Kiruna, where city quarters are not older than 30 years anyway Its different in old towns where families have been living for hundreds of years...

O_O

In Minecraft it doesn't collapse

We're aware of that! In fact, that's why a thing called backfilling the empty spaces with sand and ground up rock exists Which for whatever reason was not used during the decomissioning of that particular mine

@@coldenttube9904 - "Whatever reason" usually translates as "Didn't want to spend the money."

What is nice that everyone has a fairly big land and comparing to the uk the houses are massive and can be bought for a fracfion on the price. Some of those simple village people have nicer properties and land than millionaires in the south of England who think very high of themselves 😅

@@vonder7 compared to our typical Latvian countryside - nice roads and sidewalks.

I am from belarus, but i live in lithuania. I always had an understanding poland is a country with a good economic, good roads and people there are more rich then in belarus or lithuania. Last summer i traveled to greece throug poland and was in a mental shock. How beautiful are theirs homes, how good roads they have. Nice country

I am from belarus, but i live in lithuania. I always had an understanding poland is a country with a good economic, good roads and people there are more rich then in belarus or lithuania. Last summer i traveled to greece throug poland and was in a mental shock. How beautiful are theirs homes, how good roads they have. Nice country

I am from belarus, but i live in lithuania. I always had an understanding poland is a country with a good economic, good roads and people there are more rich then in belarus or lithuania. Last summer i traveled to greece throug poland and was in a mental shock. How beautiful are theirs homes, how good roads they have. Nice country

In this case they weren't even bother to pump the water out. And the culprits are not that old. During mine closure they have done everything lawfully, but nobody is charged for creating wrong legislation

socialist poland didn't have sinkholes.

@@the_babbleboom maybe because they don't show up overnight

They will do nothing, as always.

The borough received some land from the gov for a relocation but I doubt the people who suffers will receive any funds to move out from a dangerous zone.

This was during the communist era, so the government and companies are the same thing 😂 shouldn't be allocated for neighborhoods in the first place

1. These mines are government owned. 2. If something new is build, of course they take into account all possible future problems and try to prevent them. 3. But these problems goes back to communist years, and if there's one thing anyone should know about communist governments it's they run on corruption. It was swept under the rug by soviet puppet government decades ago.

Yes, but without coal it would be impossible to maintain and develop industry, not to mention home heating.

@@jareknowak8712 back then yes. But now you can heat home without use of coal

​@@dominikdrabek4733Used tires are very good for that

maybe he saw the hollow earth and didn't want to resurface onto this mess

60 000 ?!!?!?! omg! shocking! Greetings from Tricity in Poland

It does happen in oilfields. Not necessarily caving ins, but a general depression.

Links between fracking sites and earthquakes seem to be an accepted thing these days.

On your last point - really? I think a majority of Poland's electricity still comes from burning coal.

Obey gravity - its the law.

In Poland coal mining began in the 12th century, and on industrial scale in the 18th century.

In Illinois, we have malls built on top of ground undergoing mine subsidence. If you’re a homeowner, good luck 🍀

Do you all live in Stranger Things show in the US?

Near London in Kent, UK, there's Bluewater Mall built in former chalk quarry, it's actually quite surreal and beautiful

@@leoprg5330 they have the same thing in Pula in Croatia, you sit in a coffee place and it looks like you are on Mars 😀

It was Soviet Union state company. 😂

There is no coal company - It was established and by the government until today like every coal mine in Poland

The Government probably owns the company that mined the coal, that makes it worse, no? The state may own and operate the mine, and ultimately are responsible for its benefits and consequences. The Gov't should stop gutting its judiciary and work on helping the Polish People...@@slawciu971

Town received the benefits too , now it's oh no poor us 😂

@@GaddarKerim1 Poland wasn't part of Soviet Union. It was runed by the polish communist governament and closed shortly after fall of it

No. State owned and ran coal mines.

Is there any way to check and fix the mining infrastructure?

. . . In addition to adding soil and other components!

Hows that gonna help? Taxpayer gonna have to foot the bill. Thats the myth of cheap coal going

Mines are government owned, so i guess responsibility falls on taxpayers

🤔 That's the most rational explanation, I have heard yet!

And what is coming?

​@@piotrproszewski3977whole town sinking

@@conniekabasharira7084 Nice little village, what a shame.

What do you mean?

DW could also talk about the same sinkholes in Germany but they’re prefer to talk about those in Poland and stay silent about those in Germany even tho it’s German channel

@@Loverofmagicdrinks You got it!

Na TVN to było kilka miesięcy temu.

Dąbrowa-Górnicza and it's not really a mining city at this point... it's a city with large steel mill. Don't see anything like that there. Though city itself is a rather sad looking place, compared to some other cities in region.

@@Beneficiis yeah but it developed because of mining like all cities in Silesian Aglomeration

German hidden Gold Storage during WW2.

....yeah, stop digging and stop fracking 🙆‍♀️

They figured it out, but it costs about 16M euro for backfilling shafts under only one neighborhood. Yet nobody wants to pay for it.