Waste had piled up in the middle of Roma settlement in Markusovce, covering the stream of a local creek for around 30 years. The waste dump was the result of the lack of access of the local Roma community to waste removal services and the lack of political will from the side of the municipal office to find solutions (field visit in summer 2019).

Environmental injustice occurred together with the general segregation of the Roma families from the non-Roma population, such as the fact that Roma students were segregated in schools from the other students. [5]

While the residents of non-Roma neighborhoods were provided with waste collection services - even where people did not pay the fees due to the municipality - the Roma settlement was exposed to environmental discrimination over decades. 

Most of the Roma families ceased to pay the fee for municipal waste removal as the families' financial resources were limited and the service was not provided anyways. The municipal office did not offer any solution except for three large-capacity waste containers that were removed occasionally, as locals testified during a recent field visit.

The large, illegal dump in the middle of a settlement has put the local residents at different environmental health risks. Infectious diseases spread including hepatitis. The infections did not only affect the local Roma community, but also the majority population; however, the Roma families were more directly exposed to the waste dump in the middle of their settlement. In Markusovce, a starting epidemic of hepatitis was detected several times and only through the reaction of the local health care assistants a wider epidemic was prevented, as residents reported during a field visit.

The dump was a host to mice, rats and insects such as cockroaches that could further transmit diseases. Locals were afraid that the water wells in the settlement could have been polluted; however, no data on water quality is available.

After the municipal elections in 2014, when a local Roma was elected mayor, members of a the local NGO "Roma Markusovce" started to lobby the municipal government in order to clean up the waste. The municipal office in 2015 applied for a grant from the government's Environmental Fund to be able to clean up the waste. The application was successful and the office received a grant of 95,000 Euro. [1]. Since then, 3.000 tons of waste have been removed and the municipality has started to collect waste from the Roma settlement as well as to offer a payment scheme for the waste removal fees.

After a member of the Roma community was elected mayor of the municipality, a local NGO started to lobby for a clean-up, and the municipality won a grant from the Environment Ministry to fund the waste removal. During winter 2015/2016, a private company removed more than 3.000 tons of waste to an official dump site. The municipal office then provided five large-capacity containers and started regular waste removal using the services of a local waste removal company.