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A rare glimpse into a ghost village immersed in a toxic and dangerous lake in Romania

The Romanian village of Jimena was deliberately flooded and abandoned due to pollution from a copper mine in 1978. Since then the lake in the place continues to rise and kill anything that happens in its path. The 20 residents who still live in the area eat, drink and breathe poison but refuse to evacuate. The red-green water is so polluted that you can walk on it

• Rumania
• Lake

Not to be missed

Chernobyl, Exxon Valdez and Deepwater Horizon are well-known examples of man-made environmental disasters, but you're probably heard of the Jimna disaster - a ghost village immersed in a toxic lake for 40 years. The village located in western Romania became a waste disposal site for a copper mine in 1978, when communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu announced his plan to establish the Rozia Poiani copper mine in the area and evacuate all its inhabitants. Although about a thousand residents have evacuated their homes, some families have refused to evacuate and to this day live and breathe poison - while the lake created at the site rises 90 cm every year and threatens to flood their homes.

Photographers Christian Lipovan and Andy Schwatch brought rare photos of the village that had been bustling in the past and was deliberately flooded with a lake with toxic and colorful water that continues to rise every year. The photos show an abandoned cemetery whose graves were re-buried by the polluted water with only crosses protruding above the water, a church submerged in murky red water with only its spire still floating over the lake and abandoned and abandoned wooden huts.

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POISONED: VILLAGE Geamana village, #romania www.placessuffering.com #placessuffering #exploringtheplacessuffering placessuffering

A post shared by Cristian Lipovan (@cristianlipovan) on Apr 3, 2019 at 10:51 pm PDT

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REST: WITHOUT: PEACE Abandoned cemetary in #romania #placessuffering #exploringtheplacessuffering #exploringalone

A post shared by Cristian Lipovan (@cristianlipovan) on Mar 16, 2019 at 2:33 pm PDT

Jimena's bitter fate was decided in 1978 at a time when Romania was under the control of dictator Nicolae Ceausescu. He decided that a valley in the Apocalypse Mountains would become a waste disposal site of the copper mine that was at one time the largest in all of Europe (and is now considered the largest in Romania). The fact that the small and beautiful village of Jimena is located in the middle of this valley was not addressed in the decision. Ceausescu demanded that the villagers (about a thousand in number) evacuate their homes and give them a reward of about $ 2,000 per person. The amount was relatively low for the square meters they owned and these could only afford inferior land elsewhere or went into debt. A year later the village was flooded with polluted metallic water that continues to rise by about 90 cm every year, with 20 residents still refusing to leave the place In it they grew up and moved to an elevated area, hoping that the murky water would not flood their homes any time soon.

Andy Schwatch said: "There are abandoned buildings and vehicles left and the lake formed looks like a stone surface with dozens of narrow swarms of water. As you approach the shore, you can see that the 'stone' is actually muddy soil. In the background, you can see the contours of the huge copper mine responsible. "This strange landscape. The mine produces about 11,000 tons of copper a year, so you can estimate for yourself how much toxic chemicals are emitted from the copper ores and wash the valley."

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A post shared by Cristian Lipovan (@cristianlipovan) on Sep 4, 2019 at 3:58 am PDT

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A post shared by Cristian Lipovan (@cristianlipovan) on Aug 30, 2019 at 10:25 pm PDT

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TREASURES Abandoned church in Apuseni Mountains, #romania www.placessuffering.com #mountains #church #mavicpro #mavic

A post shared by Cristian Lipovan (@cristianlipovan) on Apr 22, 2019 at 12:22 am PDT

Romanian photographer and urban researcher Christian Lipovan, 36, often visits a lake that continues to rise and drown everything in its path. He told the Daily Mail: "Jimna is a ghost village swallowed by a lake with bright and unrealistic colors. The water that surrounds the hill is red which proves everything is poisoned: water, grass, trees, fruits, vegetables and animals. The lake is rising fast and there are still people They live in an area that lives under the threat of toxic water making its way to their homes. " He added: "The atmosphere is gloomy and gloomy because of the psychedelic, unnatural colors and because of the poor and miserable people who eat, drink, smell and breathe poison. This is a real ecological bomb."

Indeed, the colors that the lake reveals are quite strange and range from blood red to rusty brown to light blue, yellow and gray. The lake is also inconsistent: in some parts it is more watery, in other parts there are algae and in other parts it is so muddy and stiff that you can actually walk on it for a few meters. As we mentioned, this poisoned lake just keeps rising and will soon flood the rest of the houses left in the area as well. Lipoven added: "In the first phase of the flood, the village disappeared almost completely: the huts, the church and the cemetery. In the next phase the threat moved to the nearby areas, where hundreds of huts and another cemetery were also flooded. "They were ambitious enough to stay until the end. The last 11 families who still live by the lake will have to move soon."

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SWALLOWED Geamana, the #poisoned #lake #romania www.placessuffering.com #placessuffering #exploringtheplacessuffering #exploringalone

A post shared by Cristian Lipovan (@cristianlipovan) on Aug 3, 2019 at 11:58 pm PDT

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A post shared by Cristian Lipovan (@cristianlipovan) on Jun 11, 2019 at 5:42 am PDT

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A post shared by Cristian Lipovan (@cristianlipovan) on May 16, 2019 at 1:44 am PDT

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THE: COLORS: OF: LIFE: AND: DEATH Geamana village, #romania www.placessuffering.com #placessuffering #exploringtheplacessuffering

A post shared by Cristian Lipovan (@cristianlipovan) on Mar 15, 2019 at 1:04 am PDT

Photographer Andy Schwatch recounts his visit: "From the former Jimena Church, which once stood on a small mountain above the lake, only the top of the tower now stands out and will probably be completely flooded within 2-3 years at most. There should have been a small church there, but then when I saw the tombstones protruding from the water, I knew I had come to the right place, but where is the church? Later I found out that the old church has been moved away and the cemetery is now almost completely buried in water (here it is green and full of algae), with 2 3 exposed tombstones and crosses still protruding from the water. The dead seem to be slowly buried for the second time. The place is unrealistic. As if all life there just disappeared. No animals or fish. I did not even notice the existence of mosquitoes, although I was very close to the water all the time "The trees in the water were the opposite of flowering."

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THE: CLOCK Geamana lake, Apuseni #romania www.placessuffering.com #placessuffering #exploringtheplacessuffering

A post shared by Cristian Lipovan (@cristianlipovan) on May 8, 2019 at 12:05 am PDT

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TOXIC: INVASION Geamana lake, Apuseni #romania www.placessuffering.com #placessuffering #exploringtheplacessuffering

A post shared by Cristian Lipovan (@cristianlipovan) on May 7, 2019 at 4:10 am PDT

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A post shared by Cristian Lipovan (@cristianlipovan) on Mar 18, 2019 at 1:01 am PDT

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INFECTED: BLOOD Geamana lake, Apuseni #romania www.placessuffering.com #placessuffering #exploringtheplacessuffering #poison

A post shared by Cristian Lipovan (@cristianlipovan) on May 2, 2019 at 11:16 pm PDT

The culprits at the beginning of this ecological disaster can no longer stand trial and the current mine operators are now responsible, although they too are forced to work under the circumstances created in the past. "Even if the current mine operator claims that the water is clean enough and meets the standard, I can hardly believe it," Schwatch concluded, "with everything you see here, how does it even make sense? It is almost inconceivable that the abyss of the people who still live here "They were not significantly damaged. It is worth finding a new home for all of them - and beautiful one hour earlier. Soon their homes will disappear forever in the muddy lake, but certainly not from their hearts."

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FUNERAL: CEREMONY www.placessuffering.com #placessuffering #exploringtheplacessuffering #romania

A post shared by Cristian Lipovan (@cristianlipovan) on Oct 30, 2018 at 8:50 am PDT

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A post shared by Cristian Lipovan (@cristianlipovan) on Oct 3, 2019 at 12:06 am PDT

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ANONYMOUS Abandoned village in #romania www.placessuffering.com #placessuffering #exploringtheplacessuffering #apuseni

A post shared by Cristian Lipovan (@cristianlipovan) on Apr 24, 2019 at 1:45 am PDT

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UNITED: COLORS: OF: POISON Geamana village, Apuseni. #placessuffering #exploringtheplacessuffering

A post shared by Cristian Lipovan (@cristianlipovan) on Apr 8, 2019 at 3:50 am PDT

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A post shared by Cristian Lipovan (@cristianlipovan) on Jan 16, 2018 at 2:48 am PST

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A post shared by Cristian Lipovan (@cristianlipovan) on Dec 10, 2017 at 10:51 am PST