October 11, 2020 - Besides illegal landfills and many current ecological issues, Kotor and Tivat will soon have a new problem - the golf courses planned by "Luštica Bay." The chemicals that will be used on the golf courses are absorbed and enter the groundwater. They then enter the public well system, warns Patricija Pobrić, President of the NGO "Our Action," which is a partner in the "YOUth Drive" project.
As part of this project, an analysis of the current situation regarding water pollution was presented at a conference at the Cattaro Hotel, where waste management was also discussed. Pobrić points out that the project implementors analyzed illegal landfills in the three Boka municipalities of Kotor, Tivat, and Herceg Novi. Photos were sent by the public, and volunteers and coordinators went out into the field and mapped them.
- We found 75 such locations. We included them in one single program with dots, to give them GPS locations, so that we could subsequently send a link to all utility companies and then "track" when the location is cleared. We cleaned three spots on the International Coastal Cleaning Day, so we put green dots on the map as we cleaned those three landfills. The Utility Company of Kotor yesterday cleaned the section along the road Kotor-Budva, where there is a lot of illegal dumping. So we "greened" it as well - said Pobrić, expressing the hope that cooperation will be established with utility companies of Bokelian cities for all 75 locations to be cleaned. She also stated that some landfills are close to watercourses and pointed out that water samples will be taken to establish how many landfills affect watercourses.
Professor Radoslav Udovicic, an expert in environmental protection, says that we must preserve the air and climate, natural beauty and architectural heritage, and reduce fossil fuel consumption.
"To deliver on all this, we must adequately take care of the waste situation. This means rational waste management, remediation, elimination of illegal landfills, and recycling of packaging waste. The aim is to make waste management as cheap as possible, to have as few dumps as possible, i.e., one-day incineration. A big problem is construction waste, which is mineral wealth, raw materials, and waste from excavation," said Udovicic.
Project manager Lucija Kvesić said that through the analysis of the situation on the ground in the Herzegovina County, over 200 illegal landfills were detected, which, she says, is devastating.
The project is implemented within the Cross-Border Cooperation Bosnia and Herzegovina-Montenegro, funded by the European Union. The project is implemented by the Association for Environmental Development and Culture Eko ZH, in cooperation with the partner organization of the NGO "Our Action" from Montenegro, based in Kotor. The total value of the project is 280,000 euros, of which the EU is funding 230,000 euros.
Presenting data at a global level, project associate Jozo Kolobarić indicated that of the 7.5 billion people living in the world, 50 percent live in urban areas.
"Humans are affecting climate change, due to which we lose the contours of the seasons, so we go straight to flip-flops from boots, while mental health pills are the best-selling drugs. We now have parts of the world where one cannot live at all. Those are the facts. Changing the main value system is essential for ecology; if there is no ecology of the soul, everything is in vain, he assessed, adding that education on the need for waste separation should start from kindergartens and primary schools. Montenegro has a good infrastructure and fewer illegal landfills than Bosnia," said Kolobaric.
Source: Dan
