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In Serbia, hazardous waste is mostly stored illegally

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About 80 percent of the industrial waste produced remains at the producer’s site. In Serbia, there are economic entities that manage industrial waste without a permit, including over a thousand economic entities that temporarily store waste for more than the allowed 12 months, as well as operators who treat waste without a permit for such activities. Permanent disposal of historical waste is the duty of the Republic of Serbia. However, RS is not diligently performing this duty. Although the budget for 2017 and 2018 planned to dispose of 2,000 tons of historical waste, it was determined that nothing was done. In 2019, more than 50 locations were registered in Serbia where historical waste was not disposed of. Historic waste is also traded illegally internationally. How this is done became known to the general public through the show of the documentary TV series Green Patrol called Hazardous Waste on the tour of the author Ruža Helać from the Vojvodina Green Initiative, which she filmed between 2016 and 2020. This episode of the series follows the story of the company EKO-21, which in 2016 raised the inhabitants of Bela Crkva to their feet because of the unpleasant smell that spread through the city and caused headaches and nausea. The film abounds with shocking statements by the owner of the company, when it is not enough to say that his profit is above people’s health, while the authorities pretended to be helpless.

As a partial solution to the situation in which hazardous waste is illegally traded and which is illegally treated and stored, the construction of temporary or permanent storage facilities for hazardous waste is presented. At the public hearing in August this year, in Pancevo, a draft plan for the construction of a facility for temporary disposal of hazardous waste at the Pancevo Oil Refinery, a factory that was privatized in 2009 when Gazprom-Neft took over the majority stake in NIS a.d. According to the text of the plan, in that location in the municipality of Vojlovica, in addition to hazardous waste (except for flammable substances due to the proximity of the torch), oily earth, contaminated packaging and contaminated solid waste will be disposed of in boxes. It is 7.5 acres of land on which hazardous waste will be stored. There is already a railway on the territory of the factory that connects the old warehouse with the planned new one, which has increased the fear of the inhabitants of Pancevo, caused by ambiguities about the origin of the waste that will be stored in the future. Namely, it is not clear why such a serious infrastructure is necessary in order to store only waste from the factory itself.

As Sanja Markovic from the Green Bridge Association points out, there are no necessary details about the warehouse in the planning documentation. This is the reason why the citizens of Pancevo reacted en masse to this plan during the public debate, which was held on August 7, and lasted for 9 hours. Although the problems that the Oil Refinery produces to the citizens of Pancevo are numerous, this public debate will remain recorded as the longest and most detailed public debate on the effects of the Refinery on the environment and human health in the city.

The strategic documentation should also include a study on the impact on the people around such a facility. However, the impact on the residents of Vojlovica and Starcevo is not mentioned in this document. ‘These are living people. Two years ago, the Refinery put a fence on its property right next to the houses, without informing the residents of the houses that border the factory. The people who live nearby are the guinea pigs in this project. ‘

In their work, the authorities try to minimally satisfy the legal framework, so that they would not be held accountable in court, while they are not interested in people’s health at all. At the public session of the Commission for Plans on August 7, Ivan Zafirović, B.Sc. sociologist and eco-management specialist, stated that the facility for temporary storage of hazardous waste cannot affect the ecosystem. The arrogance of the institutions is clearly seen in the attitude towards those who do not want to leave their future and health to the interests of profit. Namely, eleven requests for access to information of public importance, of which only two concern the Refinery, and which the associations Zeleni most and Pancevo did not submit to the city administration, were rejected as unreasonable.

The explanation states that they asked for too much information. Misdemeanor proceedings have been initiated against those responsible for blocking access to information of public importance. Additional information about the planned warehouse cannot be requested until the public hearing is over. Until then, the citizens of Pancevo are on hold. During the public debate, citizens also raised a large number of objections to the proposed plan. As Sanja Markovic points out, only banalities are accepted. However, the hope remains that at least due to the adopted remarks about the lack of expertise of the person who prepared the strategic documentation, a new one will be drafted.

The associations Zeleni most and Pancevo is not a hole, conducted a survey among the residents of Pancevo who live in the immediate vicinity of the Oil Refinery in connection with the planned works. The results were discouraging. As many as 74% of respondents were unaware that a warehouse was being planned, although the local government was obliged to inform residents about this. ‘That’s a must see. Every house we entered because of the proximity of the factory broke somewhere. There should be a green belt, and not a single tree has been planted. The question is how it is possible that in one of the four cities where the most money is allocated for the eco-tax, ie millions of euros, there is no plan to help these people. That money would have to be invested in helping people sell their plots because people can’t sell them in the market. Every house has at least one cancer patient. There are children and a babies. All this is waiting for the new generation, ‘said Sanja Markovic, who is an anthropo-geographer by profession.

Source: bilten.org

 

 

 

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