Oldřichov na Hranicích, 2019
“Our houses here on the hill have cracked”
Only a kilometer and a half separate the small Sudeten village of Oldřichov na Hranicích from the current mining center. It is half of the original German village of Ullersdorf, which was divided across the stream bed into the Polish Kopaczów and the Czech Oldřichov na Hranicích as part of the post-war reorganization.
Just as insensitively as politics once interfered with Ullersdorf, the expanding mine now affects the lives of its inhabitants. While the neighboring villages are affected mainly by light smog, noise, dust and loss of groundwater, the inhabitants of the houses within sight of the mining area are faced with cracks in the masonry of their buildings.
The house of local farmer Petra Vávro, who, together with her neighbors, attributes the problem to the mine’s activities, is also being torn apart. She cannot explain why her century-old house, which has never had a crack, would suddenly start to crumble.
As the keeper of a large herd of goats, sheep and poultry, the disappearance of water is also weighing on her. Until five years ago, her animals went to drink in the numerous pools (Petra is standing on the site of one of those in the photo) and meandering streams in the area. Today, instead, the dry landscape around Oldřichov is lined only with numerous exploratory boreholes monitoring the loss of groundwater.
