the Jiu Valley. Although many felt that this number was much higher, in 1999 the National Agency for the Development and Application of Reconstruction Programs in the Mining Regions (ANDIPRZM) estimated that over 16,000, or 25% of the working population, are unemployed, compared with the official statistics of the national average of 10%. While official estimates were lower, the former mayor of Lupeni (a city of then approximately 35,000 and the location of the largest mine in Romania) estimated that real unemployment in the city was nearly sixty percent in the year 2000. Environmental pollution The Jiu Valley suffers from significant pollution due to industrialization and geographical factors (being situated in a depression). The region has been for more than a century a strongly mono-industrial one, with the economy revolving around mining, and this has had a very negative impact upon the environment. After the collapse of the mining industry in the 1990s, the region was officially considered a disadvantaged area, but there were not sufficient resources to care for the environment. The main effects of pollution are the pollution of the underground waters which also affects the surface, and the air pollution. This negatively affects the health of the population. The climate of Jiu Valley is also unfavourable: the mountain protection hamper the refreshing of the air. Another effect is the pollution of Jiu river. Social problems Many of the social problems of Jiu Valley are common to other parts of Romania (such as poverty and unemployment), but these problems are affecting the region in an exacerbated way, due to factors such as the extreme mono-industrialization during the 20th century, the geographical isolation of the region, and the low level of education of the population. Increasingly this region is relying on the informal economy/black market in order to survive. Almost all activities in the area used to rely directly or indirectly on the mines, so when the mines were closed an economic and social shock occurred. There are very few opportunities outside mining due to the fact that the region is not an agricultural one (which would have offered a safety net in the form of subsistence agriculture). Much of the population is also uprooted and isolated, due to the fact that many of the workers were forcefully brought from other parts of the country during the communist regime. During the 1970s and 1980s, workers from pauper, rural counties