With residents of the southern part of Klaipėda complaining of unpleasant odours, the city authorities have appealed to the Department of Environmental Protection to provide a list of companies with integrated pollution prevention and control or pollution permits located in and around the municipality.

„We are particularly interested in companies that use or process organic substances, as well as products of plant and animal origin, and those that emit odorous pollutants into the ambient air in the course of their activities“, – the municipality's report quotes Klaipėda mayor Arvydas Vaitkus as saying.

From 1 August to 17 October, the municipality received about 70 reports of persistent unpleasant odours, categorised as sewage, faeces, manure, rape and others. According to the complainants, the odours may be emanating from companies operating in the village of Dumpiai and in the Klaipėda Free Economic Zone, and their effects have a negative impact on people's physical and mental health.

In order to address this problem and to find the sources of unpleasant odours, the municipality is also going to pay more attention to the activities of catering establishments.

„Our focus is also on a wide range of smaller businesses, such as those providing catering services. Often they do not have special grease traps and discharge grease into domestic sewage networks, which can be one of the causes of unpleasant odours," Vaitkus said.

The municipality said that the Department of Environmental Protection will also be asked to monitor companies whose activities generate grease waste and encourage them to install local treatment plants.