Hopes of “happy country home” dashed as buyers uncover hazardous waste beneath Ostrava plots
Emotions are running high in one of Ostrava’s suburban districts. Several families who bought land in the district of Hošťálkovice with plans to build homes say they were deceived after excavation works uncovered piles of hidden toxic waste — including plastics, flammable containers and batteries. A geological survey later confirmed the presence of hazardous substances, some of them carcinogenic.
“I didn’t buy a plot on a dump — I bought a plot with a view of Ostrava. And now I’ve had to give up on it. This really isn’t a place where you’d want to live,” says Jana Hynková, standing on what should have been the site of her new country house.
Four families are now demanding refunds and damages, arguing that the municipality knowingly sold them contaminated land.
Miroslav Ondruš, the lawyer representing the affected families, says this is no small illegal waste dump on the outskirts of town –it is a huge landfill over a large area that dates back 50 years and more.
“All of the plots that were sold are affected by the same problem, and legal steps are being taken against the municipality — the withdrawal from the purchase contracts that were signed and compensation,” he said.
According to Tomáš Jaroch one of the landowners who commissioned a geological probe the results were horrifying - the waste dump allegedly contains petroleum products exceeding normal levels by more than 1,500 times, as well as benzenes and other dangerous compounds. He estimates that at least 1,000 tons of life-threatening waste are buried in the area, making construction impossible.
The families who bought the plots last year have withdrawn from their contracts, issued a pre-litigation notice to the Hošťálkovice district — the seller of the land — and are demanding refunds. They are also seeking compensation for additional costs, such as project documentation, while still servicing mortgages for homes they cannot build.
The case has raised an outcry and the local authorities have come under fire from all sides. Town hall officials have denied any knowledge of the problem, claiming that the plots have been listed as building land for decades, with no official record of a landfill. The mayor, who is new to the area, argued that he himself had bought land and built a house not far from the toxic site.
Opinions in Hošťálkovice are divided: some believe the mayor genuinely did not know about the landfill, while others feel deceived. Several longtime residents approached by journalists said the older locals all knew what was below ground in the given area. They recall that after a sandpit on the site closed in the early 1970s, the pit was gradually filled with waste — municipal garbage and chemical byproducts.
The local authorities have now commissioned an extensive geological survey to investigate the extent of the contamination and whether hazardous substances have spread to nearby inhabited areas, where many residents have gardens. They say there is no question that the affected landowners will get their money back.
