Environment Energy Mining Watch SEE|News|Environment ministers from the region, at a meeting on polluted waters, activists are calling for urgent action

Environment ministers from the region, at a meeting on polluted waters, activists are calling for urgent action

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Lately, we have been witnessing exceptional pollution of rivers and lakes on the territory of Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro. In some places, waste cleaning has started, but waste removal does not solve the problem and its cause, environmental activists from countries in the region agree. Activists from these countries say they have been cooperating with each other for a long time, but that their comments are often not heard by the authorities.

“We are neighbors and we work together, we point out problems, but we cannot solve this. The authorities are the ones who can, “Almer Mekic of the Montenegrin NGO Euromost in Bijelo Polje, Montenegro, told the BBC in Serbian.

They also fear that the meeting of the ministers of environment will not bring concrete solutions, but that everything will remain on paper – as before.

The ministers of environment of the countries in the region held a meeting on polluted rivers, for now only agreements in principle. From the meeting of the authorities in Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina, only the announcements of cooperation in solving the problem of river pollution in the Balkans arrived. What they said from the meeting:

Serbia

 

Minister Vujovic proposed that the three countries sign a memorandum of understanding, on the basis of which the necessary activities will be carried out, it is stated in the announcement.

Vujovic also asked her colleagues to form a working group in their department, in order to approach this problem at the technical level and map illegal landfills, it is added.

Montenegro

 

Ratko Mitrovic, the Montenegrin Minister of Ecology, proposed the formation of a commission to consider the problems in order to define further cooperation, “it is pointed out.

Representatives of Montenegro also stated that the three countries could apply for EU funds through a joint project, as a good example of regional cooperation.

Bosnia and Herzegovina

 

“Regional cooperation is imperative,” said Stasa Kosarac, Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Minister of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations.

He pointed out that it is important that there is a political decision to solve this problem by joint engagement.

During that time, Svjetlana Radusin, Assistant Minister of Ecology of the Republic of Srpska, said that she expected concrete activities in the field.

As he says, in the previous period, “there were a lot of strategies and decisions that remained a dead letter on paper”.

Source: bbc.com

 

 

 

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