Seven out of 10 fish from the Adriatic contain plastic! For precisely this reason, the Adriatic has been proclaimed one of Europe’s three most polluted seas, which could also have far-reaching consequences for the economies of the six countries this sea splashes against. Pollution from this material is the greatest threat to biodiversity on the planet after climate changes.

Ivo Knežević, a fisherman from Ulcinj, says he is often astonished by the quantity of waste he sees on the open sea, several kilometres from the mouth of the River Bojana.

“Earlier we witnessed the fact that there would be various types of waste after a strong southerly wind. But, that is not a case anymore. The plastic is everywhere now” he points out.

The situation deteriorates with the first autumn rains, when the brooks and streams start flowing again and bring down waste discarded in dried-up watercourses. When a supermarket carrier bag or plastic bottle is not thrown into a trash can, trouble starts for those who live next to the sea and from it.

“We end up eating any plastic bag that is not thrown away properly. In other words, we are killing ourselves,” Knežević claims in an interview for the Centre for Investigative Journalism, BIRN and Monitor (CIN-CG/BIRN/Monitor).

Divers in Ulcinj also say that it is getting more and more difficult to distinguish the seafloor from a landfill site.

“There is hardly a single place on our seafloor where I haven’t seen discarded trash. There are piles of plastic bottles, cans, chairs and even wheel rims from trucks,” Adi Karamanaga, the famous diver from Ulcinj, says for CIN-CG/BIRN/Monitor.

He is convinced that this issue is more serious every day, while the fish stock is ever smaller: “I don’t think there is a single organism in the sea any more that has not been in contact with plastic. All this is dangerously undermining Montenegro`s reputation as a beautiful tourist destination and our sea as a source of quality fishery products, endangering us and our local communities which crucially depend on the sea,” Karamanaga adds.

 Local and foreign waste

Precisely because of the quantity of plastic in it, an international team of experts, in a study published in the journal Marine Pollution Bulletin, declared the Adriatic one of Europe’s three most polluted seas (after the north-eastern part of the Mediterranean and the Celtic Sea). Waste is generated by around four million people who live along the Adriatic Coast, and that number increases during the tourist season almost six times.

Of the waste that finishes up in the Mediterranean, the highest amount per capita is generated from Montenegro! As much as eight kilograms per year, according to the data from the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

The environmental activist Azra Vuković states that 80–90% of waste in the Adriatic is made up of plastic.

“Usage period of disposable plastic is 20 minutes, while much longer is necessary for it to biodegrade, if that happens at all. It primarily includes carrier bags, cups, bottles, cigarette butts, fishing nets and plastic cutlery which make their way to the water in various ways, creating a major problem for the organisms that live in the sea, but also for those on the land,” Vuković says for CIN-CG/BIRN/Monitor.

Judging by the packaging, most of the waste comes from Albania, along the River Bojana. There is also a lot of waste from Montenegro, because the Bojana flows out of Lake Skadar, most of which belongs to Montenegro. Every resident of Montenegro, according to the data of the organisation Zero Waste Montenegro, on average uses up and throws away more than 600 non-recyclable plastic bags a year, which then end up in nature or in landfills.

“Just in the hinterland of the Long Beach (Velika plaža), 22 illegal landfills have been mapped on which, apart from construction and bulky waste, the plastic was also found. This threatens to cause lasting damage to the development of tourism on the Ulcinj Riviera,” Vuković says.

Even though the sea is an exceptionally precious resource, Montenegro does not have a worked-out model of monitoring and disposing of the waste in the sea. In the European Commission’s most recent report on Montenegro, managing waste was assessed as an area in which no progress has been made.

Pavle Radulović, the Minister of Sustainable Development and Tourism, who has in the meantime resigned and left the government because of a corruption scandal in his inspection department, announced with fanfares a ban on the use of plastic bags. Meanwhile, this Ministry has announced that the drafting of a new state plan for managing waste for the period until 2026 will happen only next year. The adoption of the new Law on Waste Management has been announced since the beginning of this year. This should have been an obligation of the new government and parliament, just as, for example, the Croatian Assembly adopted a series of conclusions on micro plastics in the environment last year.

Montenegro has committed itself, within Chapter 27, to recycling 50% of its plastic, paper, metal and glass waste. The state intends to guarantee recycling of at least 70% of non-hazardous construction waste, in order to fulfil the closing benchmarks within the most demanding European chapter. This is stated in the Draft Action Plan for Fulfilling the Closing Benchmarks in Chapter 27 –Environment and Climate Change, which was subject to public debate until the end of August. Montenegro is supposed to fulfil these benchmarks by 31 December 2030.

“In the last few years, pollution from plastic waste has become more and more present, which creates extra pressure on the marine ecosystem,” it was stated in the last publicly announced annual Report of the Environmental Protection Agency of Montenegro for 2018. Along with the Ministry of Sustainable Development and Tourism and the Public Company for Management of Marine Assets, coastal local governments and the Administration for Inspection Affairs, the Agency is most responsible for the current state in the Montenegrin Sea and surrounding area.

Waste dump on the seafloor

Research carried out by scientists from countries bordering the Adriatic and Ionian Seas (Slovenia, Italy, Croatia, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Greece) within the project WELCOME (“WatEr LandsCapes sustainability thrOugh reuse of Marine littEr”), which is financed from European Union (EU) funds, has shown that there are on average 670 pieces of plastic per square kilometre in the Adriatic, which is considered a relatively high density of waste.

As many as 90% of the items from waste have been made from artificial materials. Analysis of one ton of the waste found on the beaches and in the sea shows that somewhat more than half of it is composed of plastic, 30% is wood, 10% metal and 6% textiles.

“Marine debris represent one of the biggest threats to the Mediterranean marine ecosystem with environmental, economic, security, health and cultural effects,” Dr Milica Mandić, a senior scientific collaborator at the Institute of Marine Biology in Kotor told CIN-CG/BIRN/Monitor.

She reminded that the Adriatic Sea is a semi-closed basin with weak currents and long retention of water masses which make it vulnerable to persistent pollution and stressed that the very unique and only partially protected area of the Bay of Kotor is particularly threatened.

“Those most at fault for what is found in it are the local population, tourists and, partly, inadequate waste management on the land. About 80% of the waste which is located beneath the surface of the sea in the Bay of Kotor originates from the land. Estimates are that in the area of the Bay of Kotor there are 160–250 kilograms of waste per square kilometre, and in the area of the open sea of the Montenegrin coast between 40 and 80 kilograms,” Mandić says.

She claims that the waste on the beaches is only the “tip of the iceberg” compared to the quantity that lies beneath the surface of the sea.

Dr Pero Tutman, an expert from the Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries from Split, says for CIN-CG/BIRN/Monitor that around 70% of waste from the land which finds its way into the sea ends up on the seabed and has been piling up there for years out of human reach.

“These quantities are increasing every year and even though the exact amount is not known they are certainly worrying. The effect on marine organisms is mainly through entanglement (for example, lost fishing tackle, plastic bags etc.), after which they ingest it and then waste reach into their digestive system. Larger marine organisms, such as mammals (seals, dolphins and whales) and turtles, and then sea birds are particularly exposed to this,” Dr Tutman emphasises.

The smaller the plastic, the bigger the problems

Plastic in the sea never disappears – it just breaks down into smaller pieces and enters into every sphere of the environment. Microplastics (plastic particles smaller than five millimetres) are found in all species of marine organisms. The problem with microplastics is that larger amounts of heavy metals, viruses and bacteria can also be absorbed into them.

This problem in the Adriatic was first detected during the implementation of the project DeFishGear. It was discovered that there were pieces of microplastic in the stomachs of seven out of 10 fish in our sea! So, we are consuming not only Adriatic specialities but plastic as well.

Research studies have shown that particles of plastic in the heart and human brain correlate with a risk from brain cancer and exposure of animals to plastic can lead to inflammation, infertility and carcinomas.

In the Kotor-based institute, research has also been carried out which was based on analyses of the contents of the stomachs of five different commercially important species of fish: sardines, horse mackerel, chub mackerel, mullet and sole.

“Pieces of microplastics more than five millimetres big were found in all the mentioned species, in greater or lesser quantities. Of the overall 235 samples analysed, microplastics were found in a quarter,” Dr Mandić said.

Carrier bags a “delicacy” for sea turtles

One of the most threatened species in the Adriatic is the sea turtle. Recent research published in the journal Current Biology has shown that, to turtles plastic bags smell like a tasty delicacy because of the bacteria and algae that accumulate on them. The scientists offered turtles several types of smells. Almost all the turtles reacted identically to the smell of food and the smell of a nylon bag which had been previously submerged in water, this journal reports.

“Research carried out until 2011 showed that, of the 54 dead loggerhead sea turtles (the dominant species of turtle in the Adriatic), waste was found in the digestive systems of 35% of them. The more there is of this waste, unfortunately the more sea turtles are threatened,” Dr Tutman says.

One of the most threatened and largest species of sea turtles in the world, which very rarely comes as far as the Adriatic, the leatherback turtle (Dermochelys coriacea), entangled a few years ago in a fishing net near Valdanos, but it was saved by a patrol officer of the Municipality of Ulcinj Hajrudin-Dino Šata.

Sea turtles perform so-called bioturbation, causing the mixing of sediment and the circulation of nutrients, thereby influencing preservation of the stability of the complex marine ecosystem.

Plastic waste on the beaches

The Public Company for Management of Marine Assets, which often organises beach clearing actions, told CIN-CG/BIRN/Monitor that, according to published analyses, the dominant waste is plastic packaging.

“On all beaches it has been determined that the biggest problem is plastic waste, which makes up more than 60% of total amount, in terms of both number and weight. The most common waste was cigarette butts and filters. Then come pieces of plastic 2.5–50 cm large, plastic packaging, plastic foil, sweet and food wrappers, as well as plastic bottle caps and lids,” Dr Mandić said.

Marine Assets announced that the Montenegrin government is preparing a monitoring programme, which includes waste in the sea, “all with the aim of improving the environment of the Adriatic Sea”.

“The new legal regulations must provide significant improvement and greater efficiency of the local businesses which are responsible for collecting and disposing of waste, but also development of mechanisms in Montenegro for recycling plastic, glass, metal and other packaging, as well as mechanisms for monitoring and reducing waste in production, such as the ban on single-use plastic products. This will all contribute to a reduction of the waste on the beaches and other public areas,” Miljan Živković, from the Public Company for Management of Marine Assets, said for CIN-CG/BIRN/Monitor.

However, dr Mandić considers the situation fairly worrying, “especially bearing in mind the fact that not much is being done on solving the problem, that there are no legal regulations dealing with the issue of marine debris, but also that there are not sufficient national funds for fundamental scientific research which would deal with the problem of the effect of the accumulation and transfer of waste on the health of marine organisms, and consequently also on humans.”

Given that marine debris crosses national borders and that, depending on the currents and winds, it can travel a significant distance in a short time, Dr Tutman says it is necessary to discuss this problem and its solution and work in coordination with the other countries “with which we share the Adriatic Sea”.

The environment ministries of Croatia, Montenegro and Albania agreed in Dubrovnik at the beginning of 2018 to “firm up cooperation and make use of the available European funds with the aim of solving the problems with marine debris in the Adriatic Sea”.

However, in the last two years, little of that has actually been done. The results within the common agreements and initiatives, such as the Joint Commission for the Protection of the Adriatic Sea and Coastal Areas, the Adriatic Trilateral and the EU Strategy for the Adriatic–Ionian Region are still not visible.

The Centre for the Protection and Research of Birds: The use of carrier bags to be banned

“Waste and plastic do not only affect people and they are not exclusively an issue of visual destruction of nature. Very often birds feed their chicks with microplastics, which not even marine mammals are immune to,” it is stated in a declaration by the Centre for the Protection and Research of Birds, whose activists have called on citizens to sign a petition for a ban on plastic bags. So far, 6,439 signatures have been gathered.

The Martin Schneider Jacoby Association has this year organised a series of operations to clear up Ulcinj’s beaches, Salina and the Pine Forest.

“Our volunteers came across the whole plastic waste landfills. We had expected a bad situation but not so many layers of deposited plastic waste, which the rain had covered over with soil, that we were almost falling through plastic while cleaning,”, Zenepa Lika, the president of the association, said.

Bearing in mind the fact that the best results have been achieved by education, the Ulcinj Rotary Club has recently implemented the project Zero Waste Promotion.

A member of that organisation Boris Marđonović said for CIN-CG/BIRN/Monitor that implementation of this project was financially supported by a group of tourists from Norway who spent the last summer in the Ulcinj Riviera for the first time. They were enchanted by the beauty of the city.

“But when they saw the amount of the plastic waste, they decided to launch a project through the Rotary Club insisting that kindergarten-age children be primarily involved in it.” According to Marđonović “solving this problem is an indicator of our development as a civilised society,”

We eat a credit card every week

At a global level, since 1900 about eight billion tons of plastic have been produced. Half of that quantity has been produced in the last 13 years. An alarming warning was sent from the United Nations Environment Assembly, which was held last year in Nairobi – the world’s seas and oceans are in a “plastic crisis”.

“By the middle of this century, 99% of sea birds will be poisoned by plastic, and even now more than a million are dying because of it,” Peter Malvik from the UN’s Environmental Programme said.

This institution states that every week we eat the quantity of plastic contained in a credit card, while the Ellen MacArthur Foundation warns that by 2050 there will be more plastic in the sea than fish.

The European Commission passed the European Strategy for Plastic in a Circular Economy in January 2018. Las year in June, a directive was adopted whereby new rules are stipulated for reducing and limiting the use of single-use plastic products, plastic cutlery, straws, earplugs etc. Member states are obligated to incorporate this into their national legislation by 2021. Besides preventing and reducing the effect of single-use plastic products, the aim is to move to other products and material in a sustainable way.

Mustafa CANKA

Sedam od deset riba iz Jadranskog mora u sebi ima plastiku! Upravo zbog toga, Jadran je proglašen jednim od tri najzagađenija evropska mora što može imati dalekosežne posljedice i za ekonomije šest država koje zapljuskuje. Zagađenje ovim materijalom je najveća prijetnja biodiverzitetu na planeti poslije klimatskih promjena

Ulcinjski ribar Ivo Knežević kaže da je često zapanjen količinom otpada koji vidi na otvorenom moru, nekoliko kilometara od ušća rijeke Bojane.

„Ranije smo bili svjedoci da otpada raznih vrsta bude poslije jakog juga. Ali, više nije tako. Plastike ima svugdje“, ističe on.

Situacija se pogoršava sa prvim jesenjim kišama kada prorade bujice i potoci i do mora donesu otpad odbačen u presušenim koritima. Kada se kesa iz supermarketa ili plastična boca ne baci u kontejner, počinju nevolje za one koji žive u moru i od njega.

„Plastičnu kesu koju nijesmo bacili kako treba, na kraju jedemo. Drugim riječima, sami sebe ubijamo”, tvrdi Knežević u razgovoru za Centar za istraživačko novinarstvo, BIRN i Monitor (CIN-CG/BIRN/Monitor).

I ulcinjski ronioci navode da se morsko dno sve teže razlikuje od odlagališta otpada na kopnu.

„Gotovo da više nema tačke na kojoj sam u našem podmorju zaronio, a da nijesam našao odbačeno smeće. To su gomile plastičnih boca, limenki, stolica, pa čak i kamionske felge”, navodi poznati ulcinjski ronilac Adi Karamanaga za CIN-CG/BIRN/Monitor.

On je uvjeren da je prijetnja od plastike svakim danom izraženija, dok je riblji fond sve manji: „Mislim da ne postoji više ni jedan organizam u moru koji plastika nije dotakla. Sve to opasno urušava naš ugled prekrasne turističke destinacije i našeg mora kao izvora kvalitetnih proizvoda iz ribarstva, ugrožavajući nas i naše lokalne zajednice koji presudno zavisimo od mora“, dodaje Karamanaga.

Otpad domaći i strani

Upravo zbog količine plastike u njemu, međunarodni tim stručnjaka u studiji objavljenoj u časopisu Marine Pollution Bulletin proglasila je Jadran jednim od tri najzagađenija evropska mora (nakon sjeveroistočnog dijela Sredozemnog i Keltskog mora). Otpad stiže od oko četiri miliona ljudi koji žive uz jadransku obalu, a taj se broj tokom turističke sezone poveća gotovo šest puta.

Najviše otpada koji završi u Mediteranu po glavi stanovnika dolazi iz Crne Gore! Čak osam kilograma godišnje, pokazuju podaci Međunarodne unije za očuvanje prirode (IUCN).

Ekološka aktivistkinja Azra Vuković navodi da 80–90 odsto otpada u Jadranu čini plastika.

„Vijek korišćenja jednokratne plastike je 20 minuta, dok je potrebno mnogo duže da se razgradi, ako se to ikada i dogodi. Tu, prije svega, govorimo o kesama, čašama, flašama, opušcima od cigareta, ribolovnim mrežama i priboru koji na različite načine dođe do vode, stvarajući veliki problem organizmima koji žive u moru, ali i onima na kopnu“, kaže Vuković za CIN-CG/BIRN/Monitor.

Sudeći po ambalaži, većina otpada stiže iz Albanije, rijekom Bojanom. Mnogo je i domaćeg otpada, jer Bojana otiče iz Skadarskog jezera, koje većim dijelom pripada Crnoj Gori. Svaki stanovnik Crne Gore, prema podacima organizacije Zero Waste Montenegro, u prosjeku godišnje iskoristi i odbaci više od 600 plastičnih kesa koje se ne recikliraju, pa završe u prirodi, ili na deponijama.

„Samo u zaleđu Velike plaže, bez Ade Bojane, mapirane su 22 nelegalne deponije na kojima se osim građevinskog i kabastog otpada, nalazi i plastika. Ovo prijeti da napravi trajnu štetu po razvoj turizma na ulcinjskoj rivijeri”, kaže Vuković.

Iako je more izuzetno vrijedan resurs, Crna Gora nema razrađen model praćenja i zbrinjavanja otpada u moru. I u najnovijem  Izvještaju Evropske komisije o Crnoj Gori, upravljanje otpadom ocijenjeno je kao oblast u kojoj nije ostvaren napredak.

Ministar za održivi razvoj i turizam Pavle Radulović, koji je u međuvremenu podnio ostvaku i otišao iz Vlade zbog korupcionaškog skandala u njegovoj inspekciji, gromoglasno je najavljivao zabranu upotrebe plastičnih kesa. Iz MORT-a je, međutim, tek za narednu godinu najavljena izrada novog državnog plana upravljanja otpadom za period do 2026. godine. Od početka ove godine najavljuje se donošenje novog Zakona o upravljanju otpadom. To bi trebalo da sada bude obaveza nove vlade i Skupštine, kao što je, na primjer, Hrvatski sabor prošle godine usvojio niz zaključaka o mikroplastici u okolini.

Crna Gora se obavezala, u okviru Poglavlja 27, da reciklira 50 odsto otpada plastike, papira, metala i stakla. Država namjerava da obezbijedi recikliranje najmanje 70 odsto neopasnog građevinskog otpada, kako bi ispunili završna mjerila najzahtjevnijeg evropskog poglavlja. Tako piše u Nacrtu akcionog plana za ispunjavanje završnih mjerila u Poglavlju 27 - životna sredina i klimatske promjene, koji je bio na javnoj raspravi do kraja avgusta. Ove uslove Crna Gora bi trebalo da ispuni do 31. decembra 2030. godine.

„Posljednjih godina je sve prisutnije zagađenje plastičnim otpadom, što čini dodatni pritisak na morski ekosistem“, konstatovano je prethodno i u posljednjem javno objavljenom godišnjem Izvještaju Agencije za zaštitu prirode i životne sredine Crne Gore za 2018. godinu. Uz MORT i Javno preduzeće za upravljanje morskim dobrom, te primorske lokalne samouprave i Upravu za inspekcijske poslove, Agencija je najodgovornija za trenutno stanje u crnogorskom moru i domorju.

Deponije na dnu mora

Istraživanje naučnika iz država koje izlaze na Jadransko i Jonsko more (Slovenije, Italije, Hrvatske, Albanije, Bosne i Hercegovine, Crne Gore i Grčke), a u okviru projekta WELCOME („WatEr LandsCapes sustainability through reuse of Marine litter”), koji se finansira iz fondova Evropske unije (EU), pokazalo je da po kvadratnom kilometru u Jadranu ima prosječno 670 komada plastike, što se smatra relativno visokom gustoćom otpada.

Čak 90 odsto predmeta iz otpada napravljeno je od vještačkih materijala. Analiza jedne tone smeća na plažama i u moru pokazuje da je u njemu nešto više od polovine plastika, 30 odsto drvo, 10 odsto metali, te šest odsto tekstil.

„Otpad u moru predstavlja jednu od najvećih prijetnji morskom ekosistemu Sredozemlja sa sredinskim, ekonomskim, bezbjednosnim, zdravstvenim i kulturološkim uticajem“, kaže za CIN-CG/BIRN/Monitor viši naučni saradnik Instituta za biologiju mora u Kotoru dr Milica Mandić.

Podsjećajući da je Jadransko more poluzatvoren basen sa slabim strujanjima morske vode i dugim zadržavanjem vodenih masa, što ga čini ranjivim i veoma osjetljivim na uporna zagađenja, ona ističe da je posebno ugroženo veoma specifično i dijelom zaštićeno područje Bokokotorskog zaliva.

„Najveći krivci za sve što se u njemu nalazi su lokalno stanovništvo, turisti i, dijelom, neadekvatno upravljanje otpadom na kopnu. Oko 80 odsto otpada koji se nalazi ispod površine mora u Boki je porijeklom sa kopna. Procjene su da se na području zaliva nalazi od 160-250 kilograma otpada po kilometru kvadratnom, a na području otvorenog mora Crnogorskog primorja od 40-80 kilograma“, kaže Mandić.

Ona tvrdi da je otpad na plažama zapravo samo „vrh ledenog brijega“ u odnosu na količinu koja se nalazi ispod morske površine.

Ekspert Instituta za oceanografiju i ribarstvo iz Splita dr Pero Tutman kaže za CIN-CG/BIRN/Monitor da oko 70 odsto otpada koji sa kopna dospije u more, završi na morskom dnu i tamo se godinama gomila izvan ljudskog dohvata.

„Te količine se povećavaju na godišnjem nivou i premda nam nijesu poznate, svakako nijesu zanemarljive. Uticaj na morske organizme u najvećoj mjeri je kroz zaplitanje (npr. izgubljeni ribolovni alati, plastične kese, i slično), te gutanjem i unosom u probavni sistem. Tome su posebno izloženi veći morski organizmi poput sisavaca (tuljana, delfina i kitova) i kornjača, te morskih ptica“, naglašava dr Tutman.

Što manja plastika, veći problemi

Plastika u moru praktično nikada ne nestaje: samo se raspada u sve manje komade i ulazi u sve pore prirodne okoline. Mikroplastika (plastične čestice manje od pet milimetara) je pronađena u svim vrstama morskih organizama. Problem sa mikroplastikom je i to što se na nju može apsorbovati i velika količina teških metala, virusa i bakterija.

Na ovaj problem u Jadranu prvi put je ukazano u projektu DeFishGear kada je utvrđeno da u želucima sedam od 10 riba u našem moru postoje komadi mikroplastike! Dakle, dok jedemo jadranske specijalitete i sami konzumiramo plastiku.

Istraživanja su pokazala da se čestice plastike prisutne u srcu i ljudskom mozgu dovode u vezu sa rizikom od karcinoma mozga, a da izloženost životinja plastici može dovesti do upala, neplodnosti i karcinoma.

I u kotorskom Institutu su sproveli istaživanje koje se baziralo na analizama sadržaja želudaca kod pet različitih, komercijalno važnih vrsta ribe, srdele, šnjura, lokarde, barbuna i lista.

„Pokazalo se da se dijelovi makroplastike, veličine preko 5 milimetara, nalaze u svim pomenutim vrstama, sa manjom ili većom brojnošću. Od ukupno 235 analiziranih jedinki, makroplastika je nađena kod svake četvrte“, kaže dr Mandić.

Kese „poslastica” za morske kornjače

Jedna od najugorženijih vrsta u Jadranu su morske kornjače. Nedavno istraživanje objavljeno u časopisu Current Biology pokazalo je da plastične kese kornjačama mirišu kao ukusna poslastica zbog bakterija i algi koje se na njima akumuliraju. Naučnici su morskim kornjačama ponudili nekoliko vrsta mirisa. Kornjače su gotovo identično reagovale na miris hrane i najlon kese, koja je prethodno bila potopljena u vodi, navodi se u tom časopisu.

„Istraživanja sprovedena do 2011. pokazala su da je od 54 pronađene uginule glavate želve (najdominantnija vrsta morske kornjače u Jadranu) kod 35 odsto u probavnim organima pronađen otpad. Što je takvog otpada više, nažalost, morske kornjače su sve više ugrožene“, kaže dr Tutman.

Jedna od od najugroženijih i najvećih vrsta morskih kornjača na svijetu, koja vrlo rijetko zalazi u Jadransko more, sedmopruga usminjača (Dermochelys coriacea), zapetljala se prije nekoliko godina u ribarsku mrežu kod Valdanosa, ali ju je spasio službenik patrole Opštine Ulcinj Hajrudin-Dino Šata.

Morske kornjače u moru, inače, obavljaju takozvanu bioturbaciju, uzrokujući miješanje sedimenta i kruženje nutrijenata, čime utiču na očuvanje stabilnosti složenog ekosistema mora.

Haos od plastike na plažama

U Javnom preduzeću za upravljanje morskim dobrom, koje često organizuje akcije čišćenja kupališta, kazali su za CIN-CG/BIRN/Monitor da je, prema obavljenim analizama, dominantan otpad plastična ambalaža.

„Na svim plažama ustanovljeno je da najveći problem predstavlja plastični otpad, sa udjelom od preko 60 odsto kako u broju tako i u težini. Od ukupnog broja komada sakupljenog otpada, najveći udio pripada opušcima i filterima od cigareta. Slijede plastični komadi veličine od 2,5-50 cm, plastična ambalaža, folije, dijelovi ambalaže od slatkiša i hrane, kao i plastični čepovi i poklopci“, kaže dr Mandić.

Iz Morskog dobra je saopšteno da crnogorska Vlada priprema Programa monitoringa, koji uključuje i otpad u moru „a sve u cilju određivanja dobrog stanja životne sredine Jadranskog mora“.

“Nova zakonska regulativa mora donijeti i značajno unapređenje i bolju efikasnost lokalnih preduzeća koja su nadležna za sakupljanje i odlaganje otpada, ali i razvoj mehanizama u Crnoj Gori za reciklažu plastičnog, staklenog, metalnog i drugog ambalažnog otpada, kao i mehanizme za kontrolu i smanjenje otpada u proizvodnji kao što je zabrana plastičnih proizvoda za jednokratnu upotrebu. Sve ovo će doprinijeti smanjenju otpada na plažama i drugim javnim površinama“, kaže za CIN-CG/BIRN/Monitor Miljan Živković iz Javnog preduzeća za upravljanje morskim dobrom.

Ipak, dr Mandić smatra da je situacija prilično zabrinjavajuća „posebno imajući u vidu činjenicu da se na konkretnom rješavanju problema ne radi mnogo, da nema zakonske regulative koja tretira pitanje otpada u moru, ali i da nema dovoljno nacionalnih fondova za fundamentalna naučna istraživanja koja bi tretirala problematiku uticaja akumulacije i transfera otpada na zdravlje morskih organizama, a posljedično i ljudi”.

S obzirom da otpad u moru prevazilazi nacionalne granice i da, u zavisnosti od strujanja, vjetrova i slično može preći značajne razdaljine za kratko vrijeme, dr Tutman kaže da o ovom problemu i njegovom rješavanju treba govoriti i raditi u koordinaciji sa ostalim zemljama „sa kojima dijelimo Jadran“.

Ministri zaštite životne sredine Hrvatske, Crne Gore i Albanije su se početkom 2018. godine u Dubrovniku dogovorili da „konkretizuju saradnju i iskoriste raspoložive evropske fondove u cilju rješavanja problema sa morskim otpadom u Jadranskom moru”.

No, u protekle dvije godine malo je toga konkretnog urađeno, baš kao što su rezultati izostali i u okviru zajedničkih sporazuma i inicijativa poput Mješovite komisije za zaštitu voda Jadranskog mora i obalnih područja, Jadranske Trilaterale i EU Strategije za jadransko-jonsku regiju.

CZIP: Zabraniti upotrebu kesa

„Otpad i plastika ne pogađaju samo ljude i nijesu isključivo stvar vizuelnog narušavanja prirode. Vrlo često ptice hrane svoje ptiće mikroplastikom na koju nijesu imuni ni morski sisari”, kaže se u proglasu podgoričkog Centra za zaštitu i proučavanje ptica (CZIP) čiji su aktivisti pozvali građane da potpišu peticiju za zabranu plastičnih kesa i konačan sistemski obračun sa otpadom. Do sada su prikupili 6.439 potpisa.

Društvo Martin Schneider Jacoby Association je tokom ove godine organizovalo niz akcija čišćenja ulcinjskih plaža, Solane i Borove šume.

„Naši volonteri su nailazili na prave deponije plastičnog otpada. Mi smo očekivali lošu situaciju, ali ne i da će biti toliko slojeva nataloženog plastičnog otpada, preko kojeg su kiše nanijele zemlju, pa smo skoro propadali kroz plastiku dok smo čistili”, kaže predsjednica tog udruženja Zenepa Lika.

Polazeći od činjenice da se najbolji rezultati postižu edukacijom Rotari klub Ulcinj je nedavno realizovao projekat Zero Waste Promotion.

Član te organizacije Boris Marđonović kazao je za CIN-CG/BIRN/Monitor da je realizaciju ovog projekta finansijski podržala grupa turista iz Norveške koja je tokom prošle sezone prvi put boravila na ulcinjskoj rivijeri i bila očarana ljepotama grada.

„Ali, kada su vidjeli razmjere plastike odlučili su da preko Rotarija pokrenu projekat insistirajući da tu prvenstveno budu uključena djeca predškolskog uzrasta. Rješavanje ovog pitanja je pokazatelj našeg civilizacijskog razvitka“, uvjeren je Marđonović.

Pojedemo kreditnu karticu nedjeljno

Na globalnom nivou, od 1900. godine proizvedeno je oko osam milijardi tona plastike. Polovina od te količine je proizvedena u posljednjih 13 godina. Sa Skupštine Ujedinjenih nacija o ekologiji, održanoj u Najrobiju prošle godine, poslano je alarmantno upozorenje – svjetska mora i okeani su u „plastičnoj krizi”.

“Do sredine ovog vijeka 99 odsto morskih ptica biće zatrovano plastikom, a već sada ih zbog nje godišnje ugine više od milion”, kaže Peter Malvik iz UN-ovog programa za okolinu.

Iz te institucije je navedeno da sedmično pojedemo količinu plastike koliko sadrži jedna kreditna kartica, dok je iz Fondacije Ellen MacArthur upozoreno da će do 2050. godine u moru biti više plastike nego riba.

Evropska komisija je u januaru 2018. donijela Evropsku strategiju za plastiku u kružnoj ekonomiji. U junu prošle godine usvojena je direktiva kojom se propisuju nova pravila za smanjenje i ograničenje korišćenja plastičnih proizvoda za jednokratnu upotrebu, pribora za jelo, slamčica, štapića za uši i slično. Države članice su u obavezi da ovo prenesu u nacionalna zakonodavstva do 2021. godine. Pored sprječavanja i smanjenja uticaja plastičnih proizvoda za jednokratnu upotrebu, cilj je i da se na održiv način pređe na druge proizvode i materijale.

Mustafa CANKA

Representatives of Roma organizations demand all members of this population to be provided with water and electricity, as well as food aid for the most vulnerable, but the Government has not given a straight answer yet

Last night, water finally flowed from the fountain in the yards of nine families with 50 members, in the area of the former refugee Camp Two in Vrela Ribnicka, on the outskirts of Podgorica. They were connected to the network after several days of appeals, requests and actions of Roma organizations to provide the inhabitants of this settlement with at least basic hygiene measures for the prevention of Covid-19.

Tarzan Adzovic and other residents of that settlement say that they feel a little safer now.

“After two years, we finally got water. We are satisfied, because now our children will be able to maintain personal hygiene," Adzovic told the Center for Investigative Journalism of Montenegro (CIN-CG).

Single mother C.G. who lives with six children in another part of Konik still deals with this issue. The virus of hunger and thirst had bothered this family even before the infection appeared. "We are more hungry and thirsty than full. Children are no longer allowed to collect waste at the landfills. The other night, a neighbor brought us food so the children did not fall asleep starving.” 

She suffers the reproach of the neighbors because she takes water from them and cannot participate in splitting the bills. "They ask us to take care of hygiene, but that is a luxury for us," she says.

H.B from this settlement, whose husband collected secondary raw materials and sold old things at the flea market on weekends, shares the similar fate. They take water in cans from the neighbor and pay half of his bill. Other torments are the same for this family as well.  

Two gloomy fates, Violeta Harizaj reported on during the training on the basics of journalism organized by CIN-CG within the project on raising the employability of Roma and Egyptians, are common for many families from this population in Montenegro.

The United Movement of Roma and Egyptian (UMRE) has asked the Montenegrin government to urgently take measures to protect vulnerable families from the corona virus in RE settlements, especially due to the significant number of those who did not have water or were cut off from electricity.

"Since the Government`s COVID-19 measures have taken effect, members of the most marginalized community in Montenegro fear for their lives. The COVID pandemic had only increased the already existing problems of RE community, while only few of them are able to respect the measures of personal and household hygiene adopted by the official institutions”, the UMRE has warned.

In the past couple of days, 40 local coordinators of this movement worked on "mapping the most disadvantaged families from the Roma and Egyptian communities" in ten municipalities where they live.

"We have sent a request to the Government asking for special attention to be paid to the most vulnerable categories during the pandemic in order to avoid a social catastrophe. Because of substandard living conditions, RE families face an increased risk of contracting corona virus in case it appears in any of the settlements, especially those where the lock down has already been imposed on," the UMRE has stated.

The movement has also proposed to the Government of Montenegro, as the majority owner of Electric Power Industry of Montenegro (EPCG), to order urgent power connection to all users who are disconnected due to debt, in order to enable them to be informed and to take preventive measures. It was also proposed that all citizens in the next three months be charged electricity at a cheaper rate throughout the day, as well as to postpone their payment during the current COVID-19 measures and that in that period debtors are not disconnected from the network.

Until the publication of this article, the Government did not respond whether they were familiar with the UMRE's letter, whether they considered the request for emergency assistance for vulnerable Roma and Egyptians and if they made any decisions, and if so, when the implementation could begin.

Electricity is a special problem in the Roma and Egyptian settlement of Riverside in Berane, according to daily Dan. Ardijan Shala, the representative of the inhabitants of this settlement, called on the authorities to understand that help to these families is urgently needed.

"In the beginning, we received help from humanitarian organizations. Prefabricated houses in which we live now have been built. But lately, there has been no help, although we hear that a lot of money is being set aside for vulnerable categories of the population. We are registered as foreign citizens and we get the impression that we do not belong to anyone, since we still live in those conditions, especially now that the virus has paralyzed the whole country. I know that the most difficult thing is to suppress the spread of the corona virus, but we also have the right to life, because for us the most dangerous virus is hunger“, Shala said.

He reminded that many families in Riverside live without electricity and wood.

"Only a few families have electricity. These are the ones that somehow managed to raise money and pay the increased debt. Everyone else has been living in the dark for years. Their unpaid electricity bills amount to 3,000 Euros on average per household. This is the best indicator of the situation that we live in. That is why we are asking for all previous debts on this basis to be written off, as Serbia and Croatia have done. If that does not happen, we are forced to seek collective asylum in other countries, because we have been brought to the brink of despair“, Shala stressed for daily Dan.

For now, the German organization Help has come to the rescue, which, in cooperation with the NGO Roma Youth Organization "Walk With Us" (Phiren Amenca) and with the financial support of the European Union, provided 600 food packages for the most vulnerable as emergency aid. Assistance has reached 400 homes in the settlements of Gracanica in Niksic, Riverside and Talum in Berane, Strojtanica, Rakonje and Zeljeznik in Bijelo Polje and Drenovik in Herceg Novi. The packages, worth a total of 12,400 Euros, as published on the Help website, contained flour, oil, sugar, pasta, rice and soap.

Elvis Berisha, executive director of the Roma Youth Organization "Walk with us - Phiren Amenca", called on other organizations to help the Roma and Egyptian communities, warning that "in this time of pandemic we shall react urgently and not wait for the situation to get worse."

"I expect, and I call on all other organizations, especially those that receive funds from the European Union, the Fund for Minorities and the Ministries, to redirect money to help the community, because that is the most urgent thing at the moment. If we want to keep people in their houses, then we should make it possible for them, when the Government of Montenegro does not provide any answers", Berisha said.

He pointed out that he wants to see "the Roma National Council, the new Roma political party, and other organizations active in the field, but not only to invite people to stay at home, because we know that this is not possible when they have to earn money for food”.

"I am willing to jointly agree and coordinate assistance if necessary because we already have the experience. I expect and appeal to the Red Cross of Montenegro to help all families, as we asked for it, and to include us in order to make it easier for them and for people to get help as soon as possible. This was the first week and at least ten more are to come. It is important that we provide people with access to water, food and hygiene packages!” Berisha said.

According to the 2011 Census of population, households and dwellings in Montenegro, 6,251 persons declared that they belong to the Roma nationality (1.01 percent of the total population), while the Egyptian population numbers 2,054 persons (0.33 percent). Most Roma live in the territory of Podgorica (3988), followed by Berane (531), Nikšić (483), Bijelo Polje (334), Herceg Novi (258). The largest number of Egyptians is in Podgorica (685), Niksic (446), Tivat (335) and Berane (170).

The European Commission's reports on Montenegro's progress in the European integration process constantly emphasize the importance of protecting the rights of RE and the need to improve their position, primarily through the consistent application of existing legal solutions. The Report for Montenegro for 2019 states that the Roma minority remains the most vulnerable and most discriminated community in Montenegro.

Police order people to go back home

Besim Hajrizi, a resident of Vrela Ribnicka, lives nearby to the city landfill. His family of nine shares only one room. Living conditions are bad, they don't even have a bathroom. Now, with the new situation, they are additionally aggravated, because he is prevented from making money. He fears for his family because, as he says, he cannot provide basic necessities for life, let alone means for maintaining hygiene.

"The other day, the police ordered me to go back home when I went to town to collect scrap metal. I understand it’s for my own good, but I make a living from it. I can't work. I can't provide any powder or soap, let alone disinfectants. It is said on TV that protective masks and gloves should be worn, but we haven’t even seen them. And how shall we then protect ourselves from infection? How to maintain hygiene? I appeal to the Government to help us," Hajrizi told RomaNet.

Institute for Public Health (IPH): There are no infected people from the RE community

The Institute of Public Health of Montenegro (IPH) told CIN-CG that so far there are no members of the Roma community in Montenegro who are infected with the COVID-19 virus.

However, it does not mean that they are not in the special focus of preventive activities carried out by the Institute of Public Health together with local epidemiological services. On the contrary - due to their lifestyle, a special part of the educational campaign on measures to prevent the spread of the new corona virus will be adapted to Roma and housing conditions. At the same time, key social actors involved in providing assistance and care in such situations have focused a number of activities on Roma and their children in order to improve the social situation and preserve the health of the population, which is particularly vulnerable when it comes to infectious diseases, the Institute of Public Health pointed out.

Serđan BAFTIJARI

A few days before it was discovered that one person from Vrela Ribnicka settlement was infected, a team of journalists was at his home, trying to illustrate the poverty and troubles of members of the RE population in this area. Now they are also in suspense and undergoing testing

Scenes from the home of B.B, the first person from Roma and Egyptians (RE) community infected with COVID-19, are constantly before my eyes. It's as if some internal defense system is trying to eliminate, or at least alleviate, the restlessness that has gripped me as I return from the Institute of Public Health, where I was tested for the corona virus. The countdown begins until the phone rings from the Institute and a voice announces…

In the most unpleasant way I realize what uncertainty means. For the first time in my life, I want someone to tell me that I am - negative.

A few days ago I went with a colleague to make a story about 39-year-old B. B. his life problems and to make the public aware of it. Bitter images of poverty etched in my memory, as if trying to suppress internal beats that measure the distance to an extremely important phone call. Images of the sad look of a man crying out for help to feed eleven children, confession on meals from the national kitchen, which somewhat quenched their hunger. He does not receive social assistance. Now even if he wanted to, he has nowhere to make money, because everything has stopped, or is forbidden.

The announcement of the Institute of Public Health of Montenegro that one person in Vrela Ribnicka was infected with the new COVID-19 virus reminded me of an interview I did, as it is said, "in order to raise awareness of the existential problems of the RE community", documenting the troubles faced by BB (39) and his large family. After a brief check, my anxieties were confirmed.

Aware of the seriousness, I called 1616 and reported that I had been in contact with an infected person. The doctor, whose name I did not remember, because various thoughts were swarming through my head, started questioning me. I gave personal information, then explained how I felt, if I had any of the symptoms that indicate a virus infection. I didn't have any.

We spoke for about ten minutes. The doctor tried to calm me down, advised me to start self-isolation immediately, and told me that someone from the Institute of Public Health would call me soon to explain me the next steps. I called a colleague who was with me at the home of B.B. and advised him to schedule testing. An hour before midnight, a "Dr. Tony" called and told me to come tomorrow at two in the afternoon. After that call, I couldn't sleep a wink. 

The images started to swarm through my head again. A woman with a baby in her arms showing empty kitchen cabinets while begging to be photographed. She opens the fridge and shows us inside of it - it is empty. The sight of tiny children huddled next to each other on the couch in the living room, watching the black screen of the TV, hoping that our arrival will help them get electricity. The caring words of B.B. while with tears in his eyes he talks about the eleventh child, who was hospitalized in BIjelo Polje, because he suffers from cerebral paralysis still echoes in my mind.

After leaving the apartment, the neighbors besieged us. They wanted to know if we had come to provide any help. Trying to outvote each other, they describe their troubles, explaining us that their torment is similar to that of our host. They can't work for days and they are afraid.

We explain that we are working on informing the public and the authorities about their problems and that we hope they will take some actions. We are explaining what we have achieved so far, since the beginning of the pandemic, organized in the United Movement of Roma and Egyptians (UMRE), as well as what initiatives we have also launched.

I live in that neighborhood with my family and they know me. I shared the same fear of future developments in the Roma community, the most disadvantaged in Montenegrin society. Since the signing of the Decade of Roma Inclusion 2005-2015, and later with the adoption of the Strategy for Social Inclusion of Roma and Egyptians, the authorities have been sending a message to the international community to work on social inclusion. A narrative has been created in the general public that everything is given to the Roma community. Everything that has been happening in recent days related to the pandemic, the investigations that have been published in the media, the conditions in which the Roma community lives without electricity and water, are painfully denied by the praise-filled reports submitted to Brussels.

From the nightmares, unrest and images of misery for which words are missing, the question arises: How is it possible that, despite millions of foreign and domestic funds in the last ten years, the Roma community still struggles for bare survival?

I get home, log in portals, websites and social networks with my journalistic routine and I get anxious again because of the comments there. As a member of this society, I try to contribute to democratization by working but at the same time I refuse to believe that in the 21st century there are those among us who are looking forward to the situation that has affected the Roma and Egyptian communities.

There always seems to be something worse, even from illness and poverty.

RE people especially affected by the prejudices on social networks

- Fear spread over the settlement on Vrela Ribnicka. Given that B.B. has many children, other tenants of the building, but also neighbors worry what could a children's play in the previous days have caused - Marijeta Jašaraj, one of the participants in training for journalists, organized by the Center for Investigative Journalism of Montenegro (CIN-CG) within the project for strengthening the employability of the RE population, describes.

Her husband was with Serdjan Baftijari at BB on a journalistic assignment.

- He's a journalist and a cameraman. He visited disadvantaged families together with his colleague. About ten days ago, he had a contact with an infected person. He had a mask, gloves and he respected the social distance, but we were still scared, especially because of our baby. The husband called 1616 and he reported the contact, after which he received isolation instructions and was tested. Fortunately, the test was negative - Marijeta says.

Although it is not yet known how he became infected, she believes that the main reason is poverty, because the infected man had to go out and try to make a few bucks in order to feed his family.

- Empathy, understanding and skilled doctors are what is needed now. The RomaNet portal wrote that the sick person called an ambulance, but they reacted only three days later when the neighbors alerted the police, that patrolled the neighborhood, she says.

This part remained unclear, because at first the questions of TV Vijesti about it at the press conference remained unanswered. Later a written announcement from the Institute of Public Health arrived explaining that the infected B.B. in a conversation with epidemiologists did not mention that he had called the emergency medical service.

- Although she lives 400 meters away from B.B. Elhana Baftijari is also concerned.

We are concerned, because it seems to me that the people who live in this neighborhood have not yet comprehended the seriousness of the situation. Both adults and children are out in large numbers, instead of staying at home – Elhana says.

Elvis Januzi believes many residents became aware of the situation only after the first case of infection appeared in the settlement.

Before the first case, members of the RE population living in the camp number one gathered regardless of the bans and go home only when an inspection or police arrived – Januzi says.

Nardi Ahmetović, a young activist from Niksic and also a participant in the CIN-CG training, says that he was very affected by the first comments on social networks. He was also afraid of how the situation would develop.

"Prejudices from Facebook worry me a lot," Ahmetovic says.

Elvis Berisha: Both the government and we have been doing the wrong thing

Now that a case of infection has emerged in the Roma community, it is estimated that the virus will spread significantly faster due to lifestyle, large number of household members, frequent visits to relatives, mobility within the community and cramped facilities - Elvis Berisha, the well-known Roma activist, says in an article for CIN-CG. 

- The UMRE Civic Initiative, consisting of 70 activists from the Roma and Egyptian communities, is actively working to inform the community about the symptoms of the virus and protection measures, but also about the measures of the Government and the National Coordination Body (NCB). We are also working hard to find funds to provide food and hygiene aid packages for vulnerable families.

In cooperation with Help and with the support of the European Union, we managed to provide 600 packages for about 400 families in Herceg Novi, Niksic, Berane and Bjelo Polje. We invite other actors, especially the Roma Council, to get involved.

Most of the Roma community makes money by collecting secondary raw materials, selling at a flea market and working in the gray zone. Now, almost no family can make a living, because of the lockdown so they can’t provide money for food. Families that are formally registered to be in social need received 50 Euros each from the Government. However, those who do not have a resolved legal status in Montenegro or any income call us on a daily basis, and they are in the most difficult position. 

I fully respect the temporary measures introduced by the Government to prevent the spread of the new corona virus. However, since I am very familiar with the bad situation in the settlements inhabited by the Roma and Egyptian communities in Montenegro, I claim that they cannot be implemented. An additional aid is necessary, in order to enable adequate protection: masks, gloves, disinfectants and especially food aid packages.

We cannot ask a community that has been affected by the poverty virus for years to stay at home, if we know that they do not even have a meal a day. It is necessary for the Government and the Institute of Public Health to translate all the measures and information they publish into Romani in order for this community to understand and respect them.

So far, we have not received a straight answer from the Government for any of the proposed measures. In cooperation with the Red Cross, we are making a list of the most disadvantaged families who need urgent help, but there is still no answer from the Government whether it will provide funds for everyone who needs food. Everything that has been distributed so far has been done thanks to donations from NGOs and individuals. To our knowledge, the Government has not provided any aid packages and that has to be changed. So far, we have informed close to 40,000 people through an online campaign in Romani and Albanian about corona virus protection measures.

With the first case of infection in a Roma settlement, the National Coordination Body (NCB) is considering whether to extend the isolation measures from one building to the entire neighborhood. On behalf of UMRE, we also proposed that a representative of the Roma community be included in the NCB, for a more efficient analysis, but we did not receive a response of any kind.

We are aware of the difficult situation, but in addition to these increasingly strict measures, we expect that in the coming period, families will be in an even more unenviable situation.

Therefore, anti-epidemic measures introduced by the Government of Montenegro, although necessary, may trigger a social crisis that will lead to further spread and deepening of poverty.

Given that the Government of Montenegro is the majority owner of Electric Power Industry of Montenegro, we ask:

• to reduce the current price by 30 percent to all citizens, in the next three months (from April 1);
• to postpone paying the electricity bills for the duration of the current measures - except for those who have the opportunity and want to do so on a regular basis;
• not to disconnect network customers while measures are in force;
• local governments to provide access to water to all citizens in the next three months and reduce prices by 50 percent.

We also call on telecommunications and cable operators to demonstrate social responsibility by lowering prices, or approving payments in installments of debt incurred during anti-epidemic measures.

Many families ask us for help when it comes to online learning. There are families that have no smart phones, so they have no insight in instructions and tasks children are given from the teachers. In families where only one parent has a mobile phone, and he works in utility company, children also do not have the opportunities to attend online classes or do homework until he returns from work. There are also families with more school-age children who only have one mobile phone.

After everything that happened, I can conclude that we from the civil society organizations, as well as the Government, have been doing things wrong in the previous ten years. Once the epidemic is over, we must focus on providing all Roma settlements with infrastructure, access to water, electricity and basic living conditions. Without that, we cannot expect progress in any field of life, least of all in education – Berisha concludes. 

The “very bad status” which Montenegro’s Hydrometeorological Office gave to the River Zeta after examining the water is a mild description of the level of pollution which is causing locals to fear that they will fall ill more often. Experts claim that the institution and polluters are working together

Residents of the village of Grbe near Spuž are thinking of leaving their properties and looking for a less dangerous area. They want what they consider their birth right – the right to clean air, water and food. 

“The right to live, nothing else,” says local Goran Đuričković.

Their ancestors divided the land up between their heirs so that each would receive a piece that bordered the river. This is why the properties along the Zeta are mainly long and narrow. 

This 86-kilometre-long tributary of the River Morača and part of the Adriatic Basin is fed by waters from the north of the country which flow into Nikšić Field. This water, filtered in the womb of the earth, reappears at the place known as Glava Zete. Once rich in fish and plant life, the lower flow, instead of being a source of life, has become a dangerous channel into which wastewater drains from numerous companies. The fish stocks are almost totally destroyed and the locals fear that their health is threatened.

“We asked the Institute of Public Health of Montenegro to carry out health checks on people from that area, because for several years now we have had a high mortality rate from carcinomas, which wasn’t the case in earlier years. The Institute informed us they cannot make any decision on this for now because of their increased workload in light of the coronavirus epidemic,” said Đuričković for the Centre for Investigative Journalism of Montenegro, the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network and Monitor (CIN-CG/BIRN/Monitor). 

The Institute did not respond to questions about whether they ever intend to investigate the claims of the locals from Grbe, nor why this has not yet been done.

An investigation carried out by CIN-CG/BIRN/Monitor has shown that those who are responsible for the state of the water are, first and foremost, the Water Authority, the Agency for Environmental Protection, the Inspection Service and the government departments which allow the functioning of serious polluters, even though those companies often do not have ecological compliance, water permits or other proofs about the quality of the matter they discharge into the river and the effect they have on the environment.

The Water Authority does not yet have a register of polluters. A CIN-CG/BIRN/Monitor journalist confirmed that wastewater is in fact coming out of the discharge pipes of companies which have not been issued permission by this body. 

Laboratories without equipment

A specialist veterinary laboratory in October of last year examined fish that had been caught in the River Zeta. After cooking them, they confirmed “an unpleasant smell uncharacteristic of that species of fish”.

Examinations by the Water Quality Department of the Hydrometeorological Office of Montenegro (HMZCG) during 2019 showed that the Zeta had very poor physical and chemical characteristics. The last time an analysis was carried out was in November of last year. 

“The waters of the Rivers Morača, Bojana, Ćehotina and Zeta had the status of ‘very bad’. The waters of the Cijevna, Gračanica, Lim, Lješnic, Ljuboviđa and Ibar had the status of ‘bad’, and this is in parts of the lower flows,” it is recorded in the analysis. It also shows that the Zeta has fewer invertebrates, which are sensitive to a polluted environment! Samples were taken “in the region of the confluence of the Zeta and Morača, at Vranjske njive”.  

The HMZCG was not able to give an answer about how the “very bad status” is reflected in the fish stocks and agricultural produce from the meadows which are irrigated from the river and, hence, in the health of the local population. 

“The Office is not technically equipped for this sampling and analysis work. But these examinations will have to be carried out by equipping the laboratories of the Office or by employing other laboratories,” said Nevenka Tomić, the head of the Department for Water Quality in the HMZCG for CIN-CG/BIRN/Monitor. 

The Agency for Environmental Protection has, however, recorded the sources of pollution which affect the fish stocks: “communal wastewater, mainly laden with organic material, a pig farm, a chicken farm, Lazine Dairy, a slaughterhouse and an urban settlement”.  

And a CIN-CG/BIRN/Monitor journalist, paddling a canoe along the Zeta on 16 July from Danilovgrad Bridge to the place Grbe, noticed a large number of pipes from which waste was being discharged into the river. 

Besides the discharge from urban sewerage, there are also pipes from the Mermer and Šišković stone quarries, Lazine Dairy, Monte Bianco cheese factory, Primato-P slaughterhouse, Neksan-Čavor pig farm and the Administration for Criminal Sanctions...

From the majority of discharge pipes the wastewater made the river cloudy and an unpleasant smell emanated from it. 

That day there was no wastewater from the outflows of the companies Primato-P and Eurozox, which there had been in the previous period. (Video: Iz prošle godine gdje se vidi da iz ovih kompanija stižu otpadne vode)

Permits expired, companies working

It is precisely because of these or even more alarming images recorded last year that the locals of Grbe were protesting for months. 

“As children we did not go to springs or houses, we drank straight from the Zeta. Today we cannot go near the river, it is so polluted, let alone go for a swim in it or drink from it,” says Đuričković.  

He and his neighbours complained because of the unbearable stench coming from near the pig farm, but also because of the wastewater coming from the farm and the Primato-P slaughterhouse next door.” 

In October of last year, the locals also submitted a criminal complaint against Dragan Čavor, the owner of the company Niksen-Čavor, claiming that his farm was polluting the environment. The Basic State Prosecution in Podgorica found that “there are no grounds for undertaking criminal prosecutions against any person, for any criminal offence for which he/she may be prosecuted ex officio”.

“Our system does not protect… We are asking for the law to be applied to every business,” Đuričković states. 

The law states that every company that could affect the ecosystem of the Zeta must possess a system for cleaning up wastewater, as well as a water permit. A study is also supposed to be carried out regarding the effect on the environment, for which consent, depending on the jurisdiction, is given by the Agency for Environmental Protection or the local government organ.

The Water Authority told CIN-CG/BIRN/Monitor that, out of all the businesses whose outflow pipes discharge into the Zeta on the territory of Danilovgrad, only the Mermer and Šišković stone quarries, Zeta Energy, Senca, Eko Petrol and Jugopetrol have water permits. They obtained them for a period of 10 years and they are still currently valid.

The companies that are causing Grbe’s locals to complain – Niksen-Čavor and Primato-P slaughterhouse – do not have permits to discharge wastewater into the Zeta. At the end of May 2018 they obtained temporary permits which are no longer valid. 

“The aforementioned temporary water permits were issued for a period of 12 months and expired on 31 May 2019,” the Water Authority informed us.

The owner of the pig farm, Dragan Čavor, claimed to CIN-CG/BIRN/Monitor that they no longer have to have a water permit because since December 2019 they have not discharged “even a drop of wastewater” into the Zeta. Now, he says, there is a separator in use, which separates out waste into solid waste and water, which they use for irrigation.

“Since we do not discharge water into the Zeta, there is no need for us to have a water permit”, Čavor explains.

However he had no answer to the question of who it was, then, that discharged wastewater into the Zeta in Grbe on 16 July of this year. This was confirmed by the CIN-CG/BIRN/Monitor journalist who took the video footage. In the place where wastewater had earlier been discharged from the pig farm and the slaughterhouse, a brownish liquid was flowing out, with a strong smell of pig faeces.

 “Morally, materially and before the law, I claim that this wastewater does not come from the farm – where it does come from should be ascertained by the competent institutions. It is not technically feasible, because our outflow was concreted up in the presence of the water inspector,” claims Čavor.

During January and February of this year the water inspection checked the pig farm’s work twice and confirmed that the rules were being followed. 

Who to believe – the owners or one’s own eyes? 

Biologist Vuk Iković, however, claims that uncleaned wastewater containing animal faeces and urine is still being discharged into the Zeta.

“Knowing the activity of the surrounding businesses, this wastewater originates from either the Primato-P slaughterhouse or the pig farm, or both businesses,” says Iković, explaining that this is occurring mostly because of incorrect handling of animal waste.

“At this moment the pig farm is not polluting the environment in terms of wastewater. Everything we were ordered to do last year we have done,” says Čavor.

 

That the Primato-P slaughterhouse has continued discharging wastewater into the river without a permit, which expired in May of last year, is also confirmed to the CIN-CG/BIRN/Monitor journalist by the owner Panto Vučurović. 

“If an investor does not have a water permit, it cannot begin to function. If an investor does not have a water or ecological permit, but still carries out its activities, it is the same as if you drive a public bus service and do not have a driving licence,” says Iković.

In order for someone to obtain a permit, according to him, he has to prove that wastewater from the production process will not affect the quality of the river. For this reason, he says, it is very important that the competent institutions have qualified officers who will be able to assess all the data which the investor submits.

When asked who is responsible for the fact that some companies can discharge wastewater into the river without a permit, the Water Authority points its finger at the business owners: 

“It is the entrepreneur, or person who carries out the activity and does not put into effect the measures stipulated by law. However, when it is determined that the law or another rule has been violated, or that standards and norms are not being followed, the water inspector takes institutional measures and actions in line with Article 163 of the Law on Water Resources.”

In that article of the law it states that the inspector would also be able to prohibit a company from working if it does not have the necessary water permit.

In the last four years the work of the Primato-P slaughterhouse has been temporarily suspended for the reason that the wastewater had a concentration of harmful matter greater than the maximum allowed level. 

During one of the last inspections of the slaughterhouse on 29 May, inspectors determined that there was no device for measuring the quantity of water discharged into the Zeta.

The slaughterhouse owner Panto Vučurović, in a telephone conversation on the eve of the publication of this investigation, claimed that the device was recently installed, so they are waiting for the competent inspector to go to the field to determine the factual situation. 

In fact, the fact that they do not possess this device and the fact that it is not clear who manages the communal drains for atmospheric runoff (into which many companies’ wastewater drains) are the reasons why, according to Vučurović, they do not have a water permit. The application for obtaining that document will be submitted when all the conditions are satisfied.

Although Vučurović claims that their water treatment system is functioning and that only treated water is discharged into the Zeta, in February of this year the inspection determined that blood was flowing into the river from the slaughterhouse. A fine of €1,400 was issued to the responsible individual in the company Primato-P for this. 

A blind eye turned to polluters 

During 2018 and 2019, no one from the territory of Danilovgrad submitted data on the discharging of polluting matter to the Agency for Environmental Protection even though they were obligated to do this by the Law on the Environment and the Rulebook on the Detailed Content and Manner of Maintaining the Cadastre of Environmental Polluters.  

“The two biggest polluters – Niksen-Čavor pig farm and Lazine Dairy – do not have ecological compliance. For this reason alone, they were not allowed to begin working, but for years they have been using the River Zeta as a place to dump their waste,” says Iković. 

In an interview with CIN-CG/BIRN/Monitor, Dragan Čavor said that a process was underway before the competent authority of the municipality of Danilovgrad, after which it would be known whether it was necessary to make a study on environmental impact assessment.

The dairy responded for CIN-CG/BIRN/Monitor, saying that since 2003 they have had ecological compliance issued on the basis of an assessment of the effect on the environment, which was also undertaken 17 years ago. Iković, however, claims that the dairy must carry out a new study. The new Law on Assessment of the Effect on the Environment from 2008, he says, is now in effect and the dairy has exceeded the capacities stated in the old study.

In the opinion of this biologist, the dairy’s document from 2003 was not valid either: “The content itself is such that the processor of the documentation and the responsible person who gave consent for this document should be processed, because they allowed the Zeta to be poisoned from the moment the dairy began to work.”

For this reason, he says, the failure to solve this problem “points to cooperation between the institutions and the polluters”.

“This says that the primary polluters are the institutions, because they are paid to guarantee a healthy environment and the health of the citizens,” says Iković.

An interlocutor from one of the government services, who is aware of events in this field, points to the lack of water cadastres – among which would also be a cadastre of polluters – as the biggest problem.

“There is no information system yet. The water authorities are at fault for this,” he says. 

According to the Law on Water Resources, in Article 159, it states that “the water information system (…) is established and maintained by the competent administrative body”, in this case the Water Authority.

Our interlocutor notes that these “information systems”, i.e. the list of polluters, are essential for the inspection body to go out onto the field and check anyone who is potentially polluting the rivers.

“A cadastre of polluters is the basis for the work of the inspector. Without that list they can work only on the basis of complaints, but if they examine the terrain then they will come across polluters. However, all polluters need to be recorded so that the inspectors can know whom to monitor,” CIN-CG/BIRN/Monitor’s source states.

Besides the lack of cadastres, he notes that “those who issue work permits often neglect to make sure that businesses submit to them all the necessary documentation”. So, it often happens, he says, that someone begins to work without having all the necessary permits – a water permit or even a water treatment system.

“Either the officials are abusing their position, or are not getting too involved,” he says. 

What’s left is cleared up by poachers

What the polluters haven’t done to the Zeta, poachers have, say CIN-CG/BIRN’s interlocutors. 

The river is home to the softmouth trout, an endemic and protected species in Montenegro. 

Thirty-five years ago, according to ichthyologist Danilo Mrdak, this was the most abundant type of trout in the Zeta.

“Now we can only hope that as many as a few hundred of this fish remain. For six years we have failed to catch one, and I have not heard of any angler managing it either,” says Mrdak for CIN-CG/BIRN/Monitor. 

The vice president of the Municipality of Danilovgrad, Ilija Grgurović, speaks worriedly about what is happening to the Zeta. He claims that “poaching is also blossoming nowadays”. 

“This fish is in such a bad state that it is facing extinction,” says Grgurović.

The business association “For the Breeding, Protection and Hunting of Game and Fish” Danilovgrad, which should be looking after the fish stocks, notes Grgurović, has five employees, of which three are poorly-equipped game wardens, on the verge of retirement.

“They were not up to the task… We have not succeeded in prosecuting a single poacher for years now… We cannot get hold of data on how many poachers there are, but there are definitely too many… There are poachers, but we have no proof. Only alerts and reports,” says Grgurović. 

Mrdak claims that fish in the Zeta are threatened due to poachers and poor monitoring by the competent authorities.

“Truth be told, the common nase has appeared again, there are a lot of chub and also eels, but with the state of crayfish and marble trout, and especially softmouth trout, it is time to sound every possible alarm if we want to continue to have them in the Zeta,” says Mrdak.  

In December 2019, after the “Study of the Protection of the Protected Natural Resources of the River Zeta” was produced, it was decided that fishing would be banned on the river except around the bridges in Danilovgrad and Spuž. It will be like this for the next three years.

Nemanja ŽIVALJEVIĆ

„Vrlo loš status” koji je Zeti, poslije ispitivanja, dodijelio Hidrometeorološki zavod Crne Gore blagi je opis zagađenosti zbog koje mještani strahuju da češće obolijevaju. Stručnjaci tvrde da postoji sadejstvo institucija i zagađivača 

Stanovnici sela Grbe kod Spuža razmišljaju da napuste svoja imanja i potraže drugo, manje opasno mjesto. Oni žele ono što smatraju da se stiče rođenjem - pravo na čist vazduh, vodu i hranu. 

„Pravo na život, ništa drugo“, kaže mještanin Goran Đuričković.

Njihovi preci dijelili su imanja nasljednicima, tako da svako dobije parče koje izlazi na obalu. Zato su, posjedi uz Zetu uglavnom dugački, a uski. 

Ova pritoka Morače i dio Jadranskog sliva, duga 86 kilometara, nastaje od voda sa sjevera države koje poniru u Nikšičkom polju. Prečišćene u utrobi zemlje pojavljuju se kod mjesta Glava Zete. Nekada bogata ribom i biljnim svijetom, u donjem toku, umjesto izvora života, postala je opasni kanal u koji se slivaju otpadne vode brojnih kompanija. Riblji fond je gotovo uništen, a mještani strahuju da je i njihovo zdravlje ugroženo.

„Tražili smo od Instituta za javno zdravlje Crne Gore da izvrši kontrolu zdravlja ljudi sa tog područja, jer nekoliko godina imamo veliku smrtnost zbog karcinoma, što nije bilo u ranijim godinama. Iz Instituta su nam saopštili da sada ne mogu da se izjasne u vezi ovog zahtjeva zbog povećanog obima posla usljed epidemije koronavirusa“, kaže Đuričković za Centar za istraživačko novinarstvo Crne Gore, Balkansku istraživačku mrežu i Monitor (CIN-CG/BIRN/Monitor). 

Iz Instituta nijesu odgovorili na pitanja o tome imaju li i kada namjeru da provjere navode mještana Grba i zašto to do sada nije urađeno.

Za ovakvo stanje, kako je pokazalo istraživanje CIN-CG/BIRN/Monitor, odgovorni su prije svih Uprava za vode, Agencija za zaštitu životne sredine, inspekcijske službe i Vladini resori koji dopuštaju rad ozbiljnih zagađivača, iako te kompanije često nemaju ekološku saglasnost, vodnu dozvolu i druge dokaze o kvalitetu materija koje ispuštaju u rijeku i uticaju na životnu okolinu.

Uprava za vode, još nema ni registar zagađivača. Iz cijevi kompanija kojima ova Uprava nije izdala dozvolu, novinar CIN-CG/BIRN/Monitor uvjerio se da ipak izlaze otpadne vode. 

Laboratorije bez opreme

Specijalistička veterinarska laboratorija u oktobru prošle godine ispitivala je izlovljenu ribu iz Zete. Poslije kuvanja, utvrdili su „neprijatan miris nesvojstven za tu vrstu ribe“.

Ispitivanja Odsjeka za kvalitet voda Hidrometeorološkog zavoda Crne Gore (HMZCG) tokom 2019. godine pokazala su da Zeta ima veoma loše fizičko-hemijske i biološke karakteristike. Posljednji put analiza je rađena u novembru prošle godine.  

„Vrlo loš status imale su vode rijeka Morače, Bojane, Ćehotine i Zete. Loš status imale su vode Cijevne, Gračanice, Lima, Lješnice, Ljuboviđe i Ibra, i to su dionice donjih tokova“, stoji u analizi. Ona pokazuje i da u Zeti ima manje beskičmenjaka koji su osjetljiviji na zagađeno okruženje! Uzorci su uzeti „u blizini ušća u Moraču, na Vranjskim njivama“.    

Iz HMZCG nisu mogli da odgovore kako se „vrlo loš status” odražava na riblji fond i poljoprivredne proizvode sa njiva koje se navodnjavaju iz rijeke, samim tim i na zdravlje stanovništva.  

„Zavod tehnički nije opremljen za ova uzorkovanja i rad analiza. Ali, ova ispitivanja će se morati vršiti, opremanjem laboratorije Zavoda ili angažovanjem drugih laboratorija“, rekla je za CIN-CG/BIRN/Monitor Nevenka Tomić, načelnica Odjeljenja za kvalitet voda u HMZCG. 

U Agenciji za zaštitu životne sredine su, ipak, označili izvore zagađenja koja utiču na riblji fond: „komunalne otpadne vode, uglavnom opterećene organskim materijalom, farma svinja, farma kokošaka, mljekara Lazine, klanica, gradska naselja“.  

I novinar CIN-CG/BIRN/Monitor, ploveći čamcem Zetom 16. jula od danilovgradskog mosta do mjesta Grbe, uočio je brojne cijevi iz kojih se otpad izliva u rijeku. 

Pored odvoda gradske kanalizacije, tu su i cijevi iz kamenoloma Mermer i Šišković, mljekare Lazine, sirare Monte Bianco, klanice Primato-P, farme svinja Neksan-Čavor, Uprave za izvršenje krivičnih sankcija...

Iz većine cijevi otpadne vode su mutile rijeku, a širio se i neprijatan miris.  

Tog dana nije bilo otpadne vode iz odvoda kompanija Primato-P i Eurozox, koje su to radile u prethodnom periodu.

Dozvole istekle, kompanije rade

Upravo zbog ovakvih, ili još alarmantnijih slika bilježenih tokom prošle godine, mještani Grba, mjesecima su protestovali. 

„Kao djeca, nismo išli na izvore ili kućama, nego smo pili iz Zete. Danas ne možemo da se primaknemo rijeci koliko je zagađena, a kamoli da uđemo da se okupamo, ili da pijemo iz nje“, kaže Đuričković.

On i njegove komšije bunili su se zbog nesnosnog mirisa koji se širi sa obližnje farme svinja, ali i zbog otpadnih voda sa farme i iz susjedne klanice Primato-P. 

U oktobru prošle godine mještani su podnijeli i krivičnu prijavu protiv Dragana Čavora, vlasnika kompanije Niksen-Čavor, tvrdeći da njegova farma zagađuje životnu okolinu. Iz Osnovnog državnog tužilaštva u Podgorici su utvrdili da „nema osnova za preduzimanje krivičnog gonjenja  protiv bilo kojeg lica, zbog bilo kojeg krivičnog djela za koje se goni po službenoj dužnosti”.

„Nas sistem ne štiti... Tražimo da se na sva privredna društva zakon primijeni“, ističe Đuričković. 

Zakon propisuje da svaka kompanija koja bi mogla da utiče na ekosistem Zete mora da posjeduje sistem za prečišćavanje otpadnih voda, kao i vodnu dozvolu. Trebalo bi da je urađen i elaborat o procjeni uticaja na životnu sredinu na koji saglasnost, zavisno od nadležnosti, daju Agencija za zaštitu životne sredine ili organ lokalne uprave.

Iz Uprave za vode za CIN-CG/BIRN/Monitor, rekli su da od svih preduzeća čije su cijevi sprovedene u Zetu na teritoriji Danilovgrada, vodne dozvole imaju samo kamenolomi Mermer i Šišković, Zeta Energy, Senca, Eko Petrol i Jugopetrol. Dobili su ih na 10 godina i važeće su u ovom trenutku. 

Kompanije zbog kojih su se bunili mještani Grba Niksen-Čavor i klanica Primato-P nemaju važeće dozvole za ispuštanje otpadnih voda u Zetu. Krajem maja 2018. godine dobile su privremene dozvole koje više ne važe.  

„Navedene privremene vodne dozvole izdate su na period od 12 mjeseci i iste su istekle 31.05.2019. godine“, saopštili su iz Uprave za vode.

Vlasnik farme svinja Dragan Čavor za CIN-CG/BIRN/Monitor tvrdi kako više nemaju obavezu da imaju vodnu dozvolu jer od decembra 2019. godine nisu u Zetu ispustili „ni kap otpadnih voda”. Sada je, kaže, u funkciji separator koji otpad odvaja na čvrsto đubrivo i vodu koja im služi za navodnjavanje.

„Kako ne ispuštamo vodu u Zetu, nema potrebe da imamo vodnu dozvolu“, pojašnjava Čavor.

On, ipak, nema odgovor na pitanje - ko je onda ispustio otpadne vode u Zetu u Grbama 16. jula ove godine. U to se uvjerio i novinar CIN-CG/BIRN/Monitor koji je napravio snimak. Na mjestu gdje su se ranije iz farme svinja i klanice ispuštale otpadne vode, izlivala se braonkasta tečnost, sa jakim mirisom svinjskog izmeta. 

„Moralno, materijalno i krivično tvrdim da te otpadne vode više ne idu sa farme, a odakle idu neka ustanove nadležne institucije. Tehnički nije izvodljivo, jer je naš odvod betoniran uz prisustvo inspektora za vode“, tvrdi Čavor.

Inspekcija za vode je tokom januara i februara ove godine dva puta provjeravala rad farme svinja i utvrdila da se poštuju propisi. 

Vjerovati vlasnicima, ili svojim očima 

Biolog Vuk Iković, ipak, tvrdi da se neprečišćene otpadne vode koje sadrže stajsko đubrivo i mokraću i dalje ispuštaju u Zetu. 

“Znajući djelatnost okolnih preduzeća ova otpadna voda potiče, ili od klanice Primato-P ili od farme svinja, ili od oba preduzeća“, kaže Iković i pojašnjava da se to dešava najviše zbog nepravilnog upravljanja đubrivom i nus proizvodima klanja.

„U ovom trenutku farma svinja ne zagađuje životnu sredinu što se tiče otpadnih voda. Sve što je naloženo polovinom prošle godine da uradimo, mi smo uradili“, kaže Čavor.

Ispuštanje otpadnih voda u rijeku bez dozvole koja je istekla u maju prošle godine nastavlja klanica Primato-P, što je novinaru CIN-CG/BIRN/Monitor potvrdio i vlasnik Panto Vučurović. 

„Ukoliko investitor nema vodnu dozvolu ne može početi sa radom. Ako investitor nema vodnu, ili ekološku dozvolu, a pritom obavlja svoje djelatnosti, isto je kao da vozite autobus javnog prevoza, a nemate vozačku dozvolu”, kaže Iković.

Da bi neko dobio dozvolu, prema njegovim riječima, mora da dokaže da otpadne vode iz proizvodnog procesa neće uticati na kvalitet rijeke. Zato je, kaže, vrlo bitno da nadležne ustanove imaju kvalifikovane službenike koji će umjeti da procijene sve podatke koje dostavlja investitor. 

Na pitanje, ko je odgovoran za to što neke kompanije bez dozvole mogu da ispuštaju otpadne vode u rijeku, iz Uprave za vode prstom upiru na privrednike: „Odgovoran je preduzetnik, odnosno pravno lice koje obavlja djelatnost i ne sprovodi mjere propisane zakonom. Međutim, kada se utvrdi da je povrijeđen zakon ili drugi propis, ili da se ne poštuju standardi i normativi, inspektor za vode preduzima upravne mjere i radnje u skladu sa čl. 163 Zakona o vodama“.

U tom članu piše da bi nekoj kompaniji inspektor mogao da zabrani i rad ukoliko nema potrebnu vodnu dozvolu. 

U protekle četiri godine klanici Primato-P je dva puta privremeno obustavljan rad, zbog toga što su otpadne vode imale koncentraciju štetnih materija veću od maksimalno dozvoljenih. 

Tokom jedne od posljednjih kontrola klanice, 29. maja ove godine, inspektori su utvrdili da nema uređaj za mjerenje količine vode koja se ispušta u Zetu.

Iz klanice su, uoči objavljivanja ovog teksta, u telefonskom razgovoru za CIN-CG/BIRN/Monitor rekli da je taj uređaj nedavno instaliran, pa čekaju da nadležni inspektor izađe na teren kako bi utvrdio činjenično stanje. 

To što do skoro nisu imali mjerač i što nije jasno ko upravlja zajedničkim odvodom za atmosfersku kanalizaciju (u koji se slivaju otpadne vode više kompanija) razlog je, kazao nam je ranije vlasnik klanice Panto Vučurović, što nemaju vodnu dozvolu. Zahtjev za dobijanje tog dokumenta predaće kada budu ispunjeni svi uslovi. 

Iako Vučurović tvrdi da njihov prečistač funkcioniše i da se u Zetu uliva samo prečišćena voda, u februaru ove godine inspekcija je utvrdila da se iz klanice u rijeku izliva krv. Zbog toga je odgovornoj osobi u kompaniji Primato-P izrečena kazna od 1.400 eura. 

Zagađivačima se gleda kroz prste

Tokom 2018. i 2019. godine Agenciji za zaštitu životne sredine niko sa teritorije Danilovgrada nije dostavio podatke o ispuštanju zagađujućih materija iako su bili obavezni Zakonom o životnoj sredini i Pravilnikom o bližem sadržaju i načinu vođenja katastra zagađivača životne sredine. 

„Dva najveća zagađivača - Farma svinja Niksen-Čavor i Mljekara Lazine nemaju ekološke saglasnosti. Samim tim nijesu mogle ni početi sa svojim radom, ali one već godinama koriste rijeku Zetu kao mjesto za istovar svog otpada“, kaže Iković. 

Dragan Čavor je u razgovoru za CIN-CG/BIRN/Monitor kazao da je u toku proces pred nadležnim organom opštine Danilovgrad nakon kojeg će se znati da li je potrebno da rade elaborat o procjeni uticaja na životnu sredinu. 

Iz mljekare su odgovorili za CIN-CG/BIRN/Monitor, da od 2003. godine imaju ekološku saglasnost izdatu na elaborat o procjeni uticaja na životnu sredinu koji je, takođe, urađen prije 17 godina. Iković, međutim, tvrdi da mljekara mora da uradi novi elaborat. Na snazi je, objašnjava on, novi Zakon o procjeni uticaja na životnu sredinu iz 2008. godine, a mljekara je prevazišla kapacitete navedene u starom elaboratu.

Prema mišljenju ovog biologa, ni dokument mljekare iz 2003. godine nije bio valjan: „Sami sadržaj je takav da obrađivača dokumentacije i odgovorno lice koje je dalo saglasnost na ovakav dokument treba procesuirati, jer su dozvolili trovanje Zete od momenta otkad radi mljekara”. 

Zato, ističe on, nerješavanje ovog problema „upućuje na saradnju institucija i zagađivača“.

„To govori da su primarni zagađivači institucije, jer su plaćene da obezbijede zdravu životnu sredinu i zdravlje građana“,  kaže Iković.

Sagovornik iz jedne vladine službe, upućen u dešavanja u ovoj oblasti, kao najveći problem navodi to da ne postoje vodni katastri, među kojima je i katastar zagađivača. 

„Informacionog sistema još nema. Upravljač vodama je za to kriv“, kaže on.

Prema Zakonu o vodama, a u članu 159, navodi se da „vodni informacioni sistem (...) uspostavlja i vodi nadležni organ uprave“, u ovom slučaju Uprava za vode.

Naš sagovornik napominje da su ti „informacioni sistemi“, tj. spisak zagađivača, neophodni da inspekcijski organi izađu na teren i provjere one koji potencijalno štete rijekama. 

„Katastar zagađivača je baza za rad inspektora. Bez tog spiska oni mogu da rade samo na osnovu prijave, ili ako pretražuju teren, pa naiđu na zagađivača. Ipak, svi zagađivači treba da budu evidentirani kako bi inspektori znali koga da kontrolišu“, navodi izvor CIN-CG/BIRN/Monitor.

Pored nepostojanja katastara, on napominje da „davaoci dozvola za rad često propuste da im preduzeća dostave svu potrebnu dokumentaciju“. Tako se često dešava, kaže on, da neko počne da radi a da nema sve potrebne dozvole – vodnu dozvolu ili čak prečistač vode.

„Ili činovnici zloupotrebljavaju položaj, ili se ne udubljuju previše “, kaže on. 

Što ostane, dokrajče krivolovci

To što Zeti nijesu uradili zagađivači, učinili su krivolovci, kažu sagovornici CIN-CG/BIRN/Monitor. 

U njoj je i stanište mekousne pastrmke, endemične i zaštićene vrste u Crnoj Gori. 

Prije 35 godina, kaže ihtiolog Danilo Mrdak, to je bila najbrojnija vrsta pastrmke u Zeti. 

„Sada, daj Bože da je ostalo par stotina jedinki. Mi evo šest godina nismo uspjeli da je uhvatimo, a nisam čuo da je to uspio niti jedan sportski ribolovac“, kaže Mrdak za CIN-CG/BIRN/Monitor. 

Potpredsjednik opštine Danilovgrad Ilija Grgurović sa zabrinutošću govori o onome što se dešava Zeti 

„Riba je u tako lošem stanju da je dovedena pred istrebljenje“, kaže Grgurović.

Privredno društvo Za uzgoj, zaštitu i lov divljači i riba, Danilovgrad koje bi trebalo da brine o ribljem fondu, napominje Grgurović, ima pet zaposlenih od koji su tri loše opremljena lovočuvara pred penzijom.

„Nisu mogli da odgovore tom zadatku… Mi nismo uspjeli da osudimo nijednog krivolovca godinama unazad… Ne možemo da dođemo do podataka koliko ima krivolovaca, ali ih svakako ima previse… Krivolova ima, ali nemamo dokaza. Samo dojava i prijava“, kaže Grgurović. 

Mrdak tvrdi da je riba u Zeti je ugrožena zahvaljujući krivolovcima i slaboj kontroli nadležnih.

„Istini za volju, ponovo se pojavio skobalj, ima dosta i klijena pa i jegulje, ali je stanje sa potočarom i glavaticom, a naročito sa mekusnom zrelo za paljenje svih mogućih alarma ukoliko želimo da ih i dalje imamo u Zeti“, kaže Mrdak.  

U decembru 2019. godine, nakon što je urađena Studija zaštite zaštićenog prirodnog dobra rijeke Zete, odlučeno da se na rijeci zabrani ribolov osim oko mostova u Danilovgradu i Spužu. Tako će biti naredne tri godine.

Nemanja ŽIVALJEVIĆ

Poslanik Nove srpske demokratije u Agenciji je kazao da je na javnu funkciju postavljen neposredno pred parlamentarne izbore i da je zbog obima posla koji je obavljao u stranci previdio ovu zakonsku obavezu

Agencija za sprečavanje korupcije utvrdila je da je poslanik Nove srpske demokratije (NSD) Radoš Zečević prekršio Zakon o sprečavanju korupcije.

Agencija je slučaj protiv predsjednika podgoričkog odbora NSD pokrenula u drugoj polovini septembra na osnovu pitanja Centra za istraživačko novinarstvo Crne Gore (CIN-CG).

CIN-CG je tada pitao Agenciju da li je pokretala postupak protiv njega i lidera NSD Andrije Mandića zbog sumnje da nisu ispunili zakonske obaveze.

Mandić je 15. juna podnio ostavku na mjesto poslanika, koja je dan kasnije konstatovana na sjednici Skupštine Crne Gore. Njegovo mjesto je popunio Zečević.

Zakonom je propisano da je javni funkcioner dužan da Agenciji dostavi izvještaj o prihodima i imovini u roku od 30 dana od dana prestanka ili postavljanja na javnu funkciju, a predstavnici NSD to nisu uradili u zakonskom roku.

Agencija je tada protiv njih pokrenula postupke.

Zečević je na raspravi u Agenciji kazao da je na javnu funkciju postavljen neposredno pred parlamentarne izbore.

“Te da je zbog obima posla koji je obavljao u svojoj političkoj stranci previdio ovu zakonsku obavezu. Takođe, naveo je da je imao pogrešnu informaciju da Agencija ne radi u tom periodu zbog aktuelnog virusa,” navodi se u odluci Agencije.

On je poručio i da će u najkraćem roku da dostavi imovinski karton “iz razloga što nema namjeru da bilo šta prikrije ili izbjegne zakonske obaveze koje ga kao javnog funkcionera obavezuju”.

Imovinski karton dostavio je sredinom prošlog mjeseca.

Zbog kršenja Zakona zaprijećena je novčana kazna od 500 do 2.000 eura.

Na parlamentarnim izborima koji su održani 30. avgusta, koalicija koju je predvodio DF - “Za budućnost Crne Gore” - dobila je 27 mandata. Mandić se na izbornoj listi našao na posljednjem - 81. mjestu, dok je Zečević zauzeo 21. mjesto.

Zečevićev poslanički mandat potvrđen je na konstitutivnoj sjednici Skupštine Crne Gore, koja je održana 23. septembra.

Miloš RUDOVIĆ

Povezani tekstovi:
POKRENUTI POSTUPCI PROTIV FUNKCIONERA NOVE: ASK PITA MANDIĆA I ZEČEVIĆA ZA KARTONE

REAGOVANJE NOVE SRPSKE DEMOKRATIJE: MANDIĆ JE PODNIO IZVJEŠTAJ O IMOVINI

ODGOVOR NOVINARA NA SAOPŠTENJE NOVE SRPSKE DEMOKRATIJE: POTVRĐENO KAŠNJENJE MANDIĆA, A IMOVINOM SE NISMO BAVILI 

Čestim izmjenama planova Vlada je omogućila gradnju duplo više kvadrata, vila i stanova za prodaju, ali je cijena zakupa za jedan od najljepših prostora na Jadranu ostala euro po kvadratu. Uoči tendera i kasnije državni vrh često putovao u Baku. Sa jednom od najvećih investicija poslovno su povezani Aco i Ana Đukanović, kao i podgorički Bemaks 

Krajnji vlasnici kompanije Azmonts investments, koja u Kumboru gradi luksuzni kompleks Portonovi, su ćerke predsjednika Azerbejdžana Ilhama Alijeva, Arzu i Lejla, kao i njegov tast Arif Pašajev. 

Na ovakvu vlasničku strukturu jedne od najvećih investicija u Crnoj Gori ukazuju informacije do kojih je, kroz lavirint državnih i of šor kompanija i banaka, došao Centar za istraživačko novinarstvo Crne Gore (CIN-CG).

Vlada Crne Gore je vlasnicima projekta Portonovi u Kumboru od samog početka obezbijedila  značajne privilegije. Investicija u koju je prema tvrdnji Azmonta do kraja avgusta ove godine, uključujući PDV, uloženo 737,4 miliona eura, dodijeljena je 2012. godine azerbejdžanskoj državnoj naftnoj kompaniji SOCAR, iako je za 90-godišnji zakup jedne od najatraktivnijih parcela na primorju, na kojoj je decenijama bio vojni kompleks, ponudila upola manje od američkog konzorcijuma NCH, a nije ispunjavala i uslov tendera da mora biti renomirani operator turističkih kompleksa nivoa 4 + ili pet zvjezdica. 

SOCAR je ponudio euro po kvadratu godišnje, fiksno pet odsto dobiti i investicije od 258 miliona eura za osam godina. Konzorcijum NCH nudio je dva eura po kvadratu, 5,1 odsto dobiti i procjenu investicija od 200 miliona, s tim što su u investicionom programu precizirali ulaganja od 90 miliona eura. 

Iako je cijena zakupa bila jedna od bitnih stavki, Tenderska komisija Savjeta za privatizaciju odlučila se za Azerbejdžance. Predsjednik Tenderske komisije bio je tadašnji ministar turizma Predrag Sekulić, a na čelu Savjeta za privatizaciju tadašnji premijer Igor Lukšić.

Vlada je, potom, više puta mijenjala planove za ovu lokaciju i omogućila i duplo veću gradnju od prvobitno predviđene, kao i promjenu strukture, sa više stanova, vila i poslovnog prostora, a u ugovoru nema ni antikoruptivne klauzule što, kako ocjenjuju sagovornici CIN-CG, baca ozbiljnu sjenku na ovaj posao.

Iz Azmonta nijesu odgovorili koliko je objekata završeno do sada, a ranije su saopštili da će se pored 214 stambenih jedinica, u sklopu rizorta naći oko 30 različitih maloprodajnih radnji. Iz Azmonta nijesu odgovorili ni koliko su nekretnina prodali i ko su kupci. 

Predstavnici investitora nijesu pristali na sastanak sa autorkama ovog istraživanja. S obzirom na to da je rizort otvoren za posjetioce, one su u Kumboru vidjele da je na prostoru od 26 hektara uz 1800 metara obale nikao čitav mali grad. 

Izgrađen je hotel brenda One&Only koji još nije otvoren, marina, vile i stambene zgrade, sa uređenim prilazima, trgovima sa fontanama i modernim parkovima, čiji luksuz dodatno ističu obližnje skromne građevine u kojima živi lokalno stanovništvo. Tu su i butici, restorani, barovi, antikvarnice, galerije, supermarket… 

Prisutne mašine i radnici ukazuju da se još radi, ali se vidi i da nije mnogo ostalo. Prema ugovoru, investitoru je dozvoljena fazna izgradnja, a završetak radova predviđen je tokom prvih osam godina zakupa, odnosno u ovoj godini. Glavni izvođač radova je kompanija Picaroti Montenegro registrovana u Herceg Novom, podružnica istoimene švajcarske kompanije. 

Iako ranije praktično nije bilo nikakvih veza sa Azerbedžanom ova zemlja je iznenada prije jedne decenije postala interesantna destinacija i partner državnom vrhu. Prije nego što je u julu 2012. godine sklopljen posao sa SOCAR-om, a  i poslije, najviši zvaničnici Crne Gore bili su česti gosti Alijeva, čija se zemlja u međunarodnim okvirima sumnjiči za netransparentne poslove. Tadašnji predsjednik Crne Gore Filip Vujanović bio je u zvaničnoj posjeti u septembru 2011. godine. U decembru iste godine u svojstvu šefa DPS-a putovao je aktuelni crnogorski predsjednik Milo Đukanović, a sa njim njegov aktuelni savjetnik, tada šef diplomatije Milan Roćen. Na samitu NATO-a u maju 2012. sa Alijevim se u Čikagu sreo tadašnji  premijer Igor Lukšić. 

Lukšić je putovao u Baku i neposredno nakon potpisivanja ugovora o zakupu zemljišta u Kumboru. Đukanović je kasnije posjetio Azerbejdžan još dva puta kao premijer, a Vujanović još pet puta kao predsjednik države. 

Vujanović i Lukšić su na pitanje CIN-CG-a, odgovorili da su bili u službenim posjetama i da nijesu imali lične poslove sa bilo kim iz Azerbejdžana. Iz Đukanovićevog kabineta nijesu odgovorili o razlogu posjeta, niti da li on ili Roćen imaju poslovne veze i interese sa Azerbejdžanom.

Članovi najbliže Đukanovićeve porodice povezani su sa poslovima u Kumboru. Republički zavod za urbanizam i projektovanje (RZUP), koji je u većinskom vlasništvu njegovog mlađeg brata Aca nadzire investiciju i sačinjava izvještaje za parlament. RZUP je posao dobio na tenderu, a investitor treba da mu za to plati 142,8 hiljada eura. Predsjednikova sestra Ana Đukanović, preko svoje advokatske kancelarije, obavljala je pravne poslove za Azmont banku. Iako i RZUP i Azerbejdžanci kao povjerljive kriju podatke o tome ko izvodi radove i obavlja druge poslove, podgorička firma Bemaks, kojoj se u javnosti pripisuje bliskost sa Milanom Roćenom, objavila je na svom sajtu da je ugovorila posao za 61,5 miliona eura. Bemaks je nezaobilazni izvođač u svim velikim investicijama, uključujući i najveću – dionicu auto-puta.

Poslije ugovora duplirani kvadrati

Tender za zakup nekadašnjeg vojnog kompleksa od 242 hiljade kvadratnih metara sa 90 objekata od ukupno 62 hiljade kvadrata, objavljen je 14. septembra 2011. sa rokom za ponude do 15. marta 2012 godine. 

Za najpovoljnijeg ponuđača SOCAR je izabran u aprilu 2012. godine. Ugovor su 10. jula potpisali tadašnji ministar turizma Predrag Sekulić i predstavnik SOCAR-a Gafar Gurbanov. On je bio izvršni direktor Azmonta 2012. i 2013. godine, kao i direktor ofšor kompanije Triangle investment koja je za SOCAR otkupila tendersku dokumentaciju. U britanskom registru preduzeća se vodi kao direktor još nekoliko ofšor kompanija. 

Prije potpisivanja ugovora sprovedena je javna rasprava o nacrtu planskog dokumenta za Kumbor (studija lokacije), koji je predviđao gradnju oko 75 hiljada kvadrata bruto površine objekata na lokaciji kasarne, od čega je polovina trebalo da budu hotelski kapaciteti, a ostatak objekti za ekskluzivno stanovanje (sa pratećim sadržajima, poput ugostiteljskih, trgovinskih). U finalnoj Studiji lokacije se navodi da je „finansijsko tržišna projekcija pokazala da investicija u ovako nizak kapacitet (800 korisnika) može biti finansijski održiva samo ako je 50 odsto prostornih kapaciteta u hotelima visoke kategorije, a 50 odsto u ekskluzivnom stanovanju“. 

Nakon što su Vlada i Skupština 26. jula 2012. godine odobrili ugovor o zakupu, Azerbejdžancima je krajem te godine finalnom verzijom plana za Kumbor, omogućeno da sagrade duplo više, 100 hiljada kvadrata turističkih objekata (uključujući hotelski smještaj) i 45 hiljada kvadrata za luksuzne stanove, trgovine, ugostiteljske, kulturne i ostale sadržaje, kao i ranije ugovorom previđenu marinu sa 250 vezova. 

Veća gradnja i profit, nijesu praćeni povećanjem cijene zakupa.

Državna studija lokacije "Sektor 5" – Kumbor  je 2014. opet izmijenjena. Omogućena je gradnja dodatnih pet hiljada bruto kvadrata, ali je izmjenom strukture duplo povećana i kvadratura za stanove, vile, trgovine i restorane.

Nekadašnji član skupštinske Komisije za kontrolu i praćenje postupka privatizacije Mladen Bojanić kaže za CIN-CG da je izmjena planskih dokumenata nakon prodaje državne imovine crvena lampica koja ukazuje na mogućnost korupcije. 

„Često su se dešavale prenamjene, kao i uvećanje stepena iskorišćenosti prostora. Sve to utiče, u prvom redu na prodajnu cijenu zemljišta, a u kasnijoj fazi na veličinu i vrijednost objekata... Portonovi je samo jedan od primjera kako se država svjesno odrekla svog autoriteta“, kazao je Bojanić.

Za pravnu savjetnicu pri NVO Akcija za ljudska prava Ines Mrdović, problematično je što u ugovoru sa SOCAR-om nema antikoruptivne klauzule, predviđene nizom dokumenata EU i Savjeta Evrope.

„Kada dajete zakup na nevjerovatnih 90 godina, iza kojeg se krije prodaja lokacije, a opseg investicija se mjeri stotinama miliona eura, najmanje što vlasti treba da učine jeste da ugovornim odredbama najbolje zaštite državne interese, uključujući i antikoruptivnu klauzulu, jer se tako pokazuje odgovoran odnos prema javnim resursima i građanima“, rekla je Mrdović za CIN-CG.

Povezane kompanije i tajni podaci

Azmont je u Crnoj Gori osnovao pet ćerki kompanija, a 2016. i banku. Ona se u početku zvala Azmont, pa Nova banka, a sada Adriatic banka. Pravne poslove obavljali su preko advokatske kancelarije Ane Đukanović.

U julu 2019, Azmont je prodao Novu banku kompaniji Adriatic Capital LLC iz SAD-a za 7,1 milion eura. Uradili su to, prema nezvaničnim informacijama iz bankarskih krugova, jer nijesu mogli naći korespodentsku banku za platni promet sa inostranstvom.

Prema podacima iz CRPS, novi vlasnici banke su Aleksandar Šnajder (80 odsto) i David Genecov (20 odsto).

Šnajder je koosnivač i predsjednik kompanije Midland grupe kojoj je Vlada dala da upravlja nikšićkom Željezarom od sredine 2004. do kraja 2005. godine, kada je napustila fabriku pod neutvrđenim okolnostima i ostala dužna za poreze 2,7 miliona eura. 

I Midland je u Crnoj Gori pravno zastupala Ana Đukanović.

Na pitanje CIN-CG-a zašto su dali saglasnost da Novu banku kupi investitor koji se pokazao nekredibilnim u Željezari, iz CBCG su odgovorili da je on dostavio propisanu i dodatno zahtijevanu dokumentaciju, dokaze o prijavljenom, odnosno plaćenom porezu za posljednje tri godine, ne pominjući dug iz Željezare od 2,7 miliona eura.

Drugi vlasnik Adriatik banke je Genecov Plastic Surgery Group iz Dalasa. 

CBCG je odbila da dostavi CIN-CG-u dokument o saglasnosti za prodaju Nove banke, uz obrazloženje da je to povjerljivo. 

Svi u Baku

Šef DPS-a Milo Đukanović i ministar vanjskih poslova Milan Roćen boravili su u radnoj posjeti Republici Azerbejdžan od 21. do 23. decembra 2011. godine na Međunarodnoj konferenciji „Politika modernizacije – novi ekonomski i socijalni izazovi“, navodi se na sajtu Kulturno – ekonomskog centra Azerbejdžana i Crne Gore.

Đukanović je Azerbejdžan posjetio još dva puta kao premijer.

Predsjednik Crne Gore Filip Vujanović je nakon prve zvanične posjete u septembru 2011. putovao i 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016. i 2017. godine. Njegova ćerka Nina Vujanović bila je na Globalnom forumu mladih lidera u Bakuu u avgustu 2017, a supruga Svetlana tu zemlju je posjetila u septembru 2017. sa delegacijom Vrhovnog suda na čelu sa predsjednicomVesnom Medenicom.

Pored ograde iz Vujanovićeve kancelarije da „raniji predsjednik Crne Gore apsolutno nikada sa bilo kim iz Azerbejdžana, ili bilo koje druge države, nije imao nikakav poslovni odnos“, o razlozima posjeta uputili su na njegov sajt bivšeg predsjednika. Na njemu se, između ostalog, navodi da je u decembru 2013. godine učestvovao na konferenciji o gasovodu Šah Deniz 2, gdje je potpisan Memorandum o razumijevanju Crne Gore, Azerbejdžana, Albanije i Hrvatske o saradnji u izgradnji gasnog koridora u tim državama. 

Vujanović je nedavno poslao pismo podrške Alijevu povodom konflikta oko Nagorno-Karabaha navodeći „da je sa velikom tugom i zabrinutošću primio vijesti o ponovnim kršenjima mira i ubijanju nedužnih ljudi“.

Na pitanje CIN-CG-a, da li je takvo pismo poslao i predsjedniku Jermenije, iz Vujanovićeve kancelarije su odgovorili da je on u odnosu na višedecenijski konflikt uvijek iskazivao poštovanje stava iz rezolucija Savjeta bezbjednosti UN koje su ukazivale na nužnost mirnog rješenja.

Tajna ko su konsultanti za 12 miliona eura

Iz Azmonta za CIN-CG kažu da su do kraja 2019. uložili 637,5 miliona eura, ali podaci RZUP-a, govore da je za isti period uloženo oko 543,8 miliona eura. Centralna banka je investicije iz Azerbejdžana prikazala samo za 2016. i 2017, ukupno 113 miliona eura, dok su one za 2012. proglasili tajnom. Iz Azmonta kažu da su te godine uložili 11,1 milion eura. Tada je plaćeno 10.868.490 eura zakupnine za prvih 45 godina, dok Azmont sada prodaje vile površine od 598 do 659 kvadrata, po cijeni do 9,46 miliona eura.  

U 2019. Azerbejdžanci su uložili 213,9 miliona, 2018. godine 92,4 miliona, 2017. godine 5,7 miliona, a u periodu 2012-2016. oko 183,7 miliona, pokazuju podaci RZUP-a, koji je na tenderu izabran za nadzor. 

Nadzor je tražio parlament 2016. godine, jer je prvi izvještaj o ulaganjima 92 miliona eura za 2013, 2014. i sedam mjeseci 2015. godine Vlada usvojila na osnovu podataka investitora. 

Iz Azmonta objašnjavaju da su razliku između sume koji je registrovala CBCG i one koja je utrošena prema njihovim i izvještajima RZUP, popunili „iz investicija (što podrazumijeva kapital i pozajmice osnivača) i operativnih prihoda kompanije“. 

„Primarni izvor finansiranja, kao što se vidi iz dostupnih javnih izvještaja, je iz investicija“, kazali su iz Azmonta napominjući da su registrovani u Crnoj Gori.

Prema izvještajima RZUP-a, od investiranih 543,8 miliona eura, 445,8 miliona se odnosi na izvedene radove, 53,7 miliona na projektovanje, a na konsultantske usluge 12,3 miliona. 

Iz Azmonta su na pitanje CIN-CG-a s kim su sklapali konsultantske ugovore, odgovorili da „zadržavaju pravo da ne komentarišu poslovno osjetljive informacije“. Iz RZUP-a su se pozvali na obavezu čuvanja povjerljivih podataka.

Iz Sektora Uprave policije za sprečavanje pranja novca, nijesu odgovorili na pitanja CIN-CG da li su provjeravali investicije iz Azerbejdžana i da li je bilo sumnjivih transakcija.

Naftna kompanija, pa ofšor

Alijev je na vlasti od 2003. godine. Od tada njegovo bogatstvo, prema dostupnim informacijama, raste nevjerovatnom brzinom i procjenjuje se da je trenutno jedan od najbogatijih predsjednika država u svijetu.  Mreža istraživačkih novinara OCCRP proglasila ga je je „čovjekom godine u oblasti kriminala i korupcije“ za 2012. godinu. Tri godine kasnije ta neslavna titula pripala je aktuelnom crnogorskom predsjedniku Milu Đukanovića, kojeg je britanski Indipendent mnogo ranije uvrstio u 20 nabogatijih vladara svijeta. 

Ugledna međunarodna organizacija koja se bavi borbom protiv korupcije Transparency International 2013. je Azerbejdžan označila kao državu u kojoj je korupcija porasla, a ta je zemlja  u 2018. godini bila na crnoj listi EU, zbog pranja novca. 

SOCAR je bio u vlasničkoj strukturi Azmonta do 2017. godine, kada ga potpuno preuzima Azerbaijan Global Investment (AGI). Da iza AGI stoje ćerke predsjednika Azerbejdžana, a manji udio ima njihov djed Arif Pašajev, pokazuju podaci Centralnog registra privrednih subjekata Crne Gore, turske berze i izvještaji banaka povezanih sa porodicom Alijeva.

Iako je naftna kompanija izašla iz posla u Kumboru, ona je još aktuelna u Crnoj Gori. SOCAR se pominje u aferi Možura kao krajnji vlasnik ofšor firme Cifidex čije je transakcije u avgustu počelo da ispituje i Specijalno državno tužilaštvo. Cifidex je za crnogorsku firmu Možura Wind Park, koja upravlja gradnjom vjetroelektrane na istoimenom brdu kod Ulcinja, u decembru 2015. godine platio španskoj firmi Fersa i kompaniji Čelebić oko 3,5 miliona eura, a dva i po mjeseca kasnije prodao je malteškoj državnoj kompaniji Enemalta za 11,3 miliona eura. Korupciju u ovom poslu istraživala je malteška novinarka Dafne Karuana Galicia koja je ubijena.

Prema izvještaju američkog Ministarstva pravde, SOCAR je, povezivan i sa češkim biznismenom Viktorom Koženijem uključenim u masovnu šemu podmićivanja visokih državnih zvaničnika u Azerbejdžanu, kako bi došao do značajnog udjela u ovoj kompaniji.

U Holandiji je 11. jula 2012, dan nakon potpisivanja ugovora o zakupu kompleksa u Kumboru, registrovana firma Saiph Holding BV i njen vlasnik Cooperatief Saiph Holding UA. Vlasnik ove druge, što znači obje, bio je SOCAR.

Narednog dana, SOCAR u Crnoj Gori osniva Azmont investments i na njega prenosi prava o zakupu bez saglasnosti Vlade, što je ugovorom omogućeno, što su za CIN-CG potvrdili iz Ministarstva održivog razvoja i turizma. U decembru iste godine, bez naknade, SOCAR prenosi vlasništvo u Azmontu na Saiph Holding BV.

U julu 2014, azerbejdžanski PSG Resort upisom akcija stiče 80 odsto vlasništva u Cooperatief Saiph Holdingu, dok SOCAR zadržava 20 odsto. Potpuni vlasnik PSG Resorta je AGI, koji je osnovan u oktobru 2013. u Bakuu.

AGI je davao pozajmice za gradnju Portonovog i tako početkom 2017. godine postao stopostotni vlasnik Azmonta. Krajem 2017. godine osam odsto Azmonta stekao je Arm International iz Ujedinjenih Arapskih Emirata, čiji je vlasnik Saiph Holding BV, ali je već početkom 2018. AGI opet bio potpuni vlasnik.

Kada je AGI krajem 2015. ušao u vlasničku strukturu Azmonta, njegovi vlasnici bili su azerbejdžanske kompanije Ataholding (33 odsto), Synergy Group (32 odsto) i Pasha Development (35 odsto). Iza Ataholdinga su stajale tri firme osnovane na Sejšelima i u Panami, vlasnik Synergy bila su dva fizička lica, a Pasha Development je dio Pasha Holdinga.

Prema izvodu Poreske uprave iz jula 2018. godine, u međuvremenu su vlasnici AGI postali Pasha Development (99 odsto) i Pasha Investment (jedan odsto). U Poreskoj upravi nema novih podataka o promjenama vlasništva. Ove kompanije su u vlasništvu Pasha Holdinga, koji je vlasnik 60 odsto azerbejdžanske Pasha banke. Firma Ador u banci ima 30 odsto, a 10 procenata je u rukama Alijevog tasta.

Pasha banka ima podružnice u Gruziji i Turskoj. Iz finansijskog izvještaja gruzijske podružnice za 2019. i 2020. godinu se vidi da su krajnji vlasnici majke banke predsjednikove kćerke Lejla i Arzu (po 45 odsto) i njihov djed Arif Pashayev (10 odsto).

Prema gruzijskim propisima, u vlasničkoj strukturi se moraju označiti pojedinačno lica koja primaju direktne prihode, a ne pravna lica osnivači, pa se tako razotkrila vlasnička veza u Pasha Holdingu i Adoru. Umjesto odgovora na pitanje ko su krajnji vlasnici, iz Azmonta su uputili na “javno dostupna dokumenta i izvještaje”.

Biljana MATIJAŠEVIĆ
Alisa HAJDARPAŠIĆ

Trasa prolazi kroz zone stroge zaštite Durmitora i Emerald područja Lovćena i rijeka Komarnice, Tare i Ćehotine. Projekat od 106 miliona upitan i ekonomski, nakon što su Italijani prepolovili podmorski kabl 

Dalekovod od 400 kilovolti, koji bi trebalo da poveže jug sa sjeverom Crne Gore, kao nastavak projekta podmorskog kabla italijanske kompanije TERNA, nepovratno će ugroziti prirodu u nacionalnim parkovima Lovćen i Durmitor, a nanijeće i značajnu štetu na prostorima rijeke Komarnice,Tare i Ćehotine. 

Uprkos upozorenjima da bi dalekovod mogao da ide drugom trasom ili podzemnom kroz parkove, vlasti nijesu dovoljno marile za ekološke štete, već su se odlučili za najkraću varijantu, kako bi uštedjeli 16 miliona eura. Tako će biti presječeni djelovi nacionalnih parkova, ugrožene biljne i životinjske vrste, ali i uništeni pejzaži koji su ova područja dovela na listu baštine UNESCO.  

U Elaboratu procjene uticaja na životnu sredinu za koridor Čevo - Pljevlja, koji je radio biro “Liming project” Željka Asanovića, navodi se da će veću štetu pretrpjeti šumska staništa zbog fragmentacije duž cijele trase, dok će nešumska staništa biti nepovratno izgubljena na mjestu gdje se postavljaju dalekovodi. U elaboratu se precizira da će, pored teritorije NP Durmitor, trasa dalekovoda imati direktnog uticaja na dva Emerald lokaliteta - Komarnicu i Ćehotinu.

"Izgradnjom dalekovoda biće uništene manje površine NATURA 2000 staništa i u kanjonu Komarnice, na Sinjajevini i u dolini Ćehotine. Među njima nema rijetkih staništa u Crnoj Gori," navodi se u elaboratu, koji je Centar za istraživačko novinarstvo Crne Gore (CIN-CG) dobio od Agencije za zaštitu životne sredine. Duž kanjona Komarnice i Tare, kako se ističe, posebno na sudare sa tim instalacijama osjetljive su ptice grabljivice, koje se brzo kreću tokom hvatanja plijena. Autori elaborata ipak smatraju da, s obzirom na uzak prostor trase, "opstanak ni jedne vrste neće biti doveden u pitanje".

Emerald je ekološka mreža područja koja su od interesa za specifičnu zaštitu. Ona funkcioniše uporedo sa programom zaštićenih područja Natura 2000 u Evropskoj uniji.

Stručnjaci za oblast energetike, dovode u pitanje i ekonomsku isplativost ovog dalekovoda i investicije od 106 miliona eura, jer je podmorski kabl svečano pušten u rad 15. novembra prošle godine, tek pola najavljivanog kapaciteta, 600 umjesto 1.200 megavata. Zato se prenos struje bez problema obavlja postojećom mrežom dalekovoda. 

Uštedom su se rukovodili i kreditori. U dokumentu Evropske banke za obnovu i razvoj (EBRD), koja je za projekat od 106 miliona eura dala 60 miliona eura kredita Crnogorskom elektroprenosnom sistemu (CGES), ističe se da je jedno rješenje koridora koje izbjegava oba nacionalna parka analizirano u Procjeni uticaja na životnu sredinu i društvo (Environmental and social impact assessments ESIA) u koji je Centar za istraživačko novinarstvo Crne Gore (CIN-CG) imao uvid. 

"Ovaj koridor bi bio dugačak preko 200 kilometara, u poređenju sa predloženim koridorom od 152.5, odnosno duži za oko 50 km. Ovo bi povećalo troškove za oko 16 miliona eura, ili oko 27 procenata. Ova alternativa nije razmatrana kao ekonomski izvodljiva", navodi se u tom dokumentu.

Ekonomska ušteda i kraća trasa da dalekovod prolazi 11 kilometara kroz Nacionalni part Lovćen i još tri kilometra kroz NP Durmitor.

Na sajtu EBRD se navodi da su konsultovali više nevladnih organizacija koje se bave zaštitom životne okoline, kako bi pomogli CGES u pripremanju ESIA u skladu sa Direktivom EU i zahtjevima banke. Jedna od njih je i Green home čija je izvršna direktorica Nataša Kovačević naglasila za CIN-CG, kako su upozorili EBRD da ovaj projekat nije u skladu sa principima održivosti životne sredine i tražili da se uzdrže od finansiranja u doglednoj budućnosti, osim ako se sva pitanja riješe na zadovoljavajući način.

Tokom javnih rasprava povodom procjena uticaja na životnu sredinu koje su organizovale EBRD i Agencija za zaštitu prirode i životne sredine (EPA) potencirana su tri ključna problema - ekološka šteta projekta, socio-ekonomska opravdanost i nedostaci prostornog planiranja.

“Pokušali smo da ukažemo da planirani dalekovod prolazi kroz zonu stroge zaštite NP Durmitor i drugu zonu NP Lovćen, dok dodatno prolazi kroz četiri Emerald područja (Lovćen, Durmitor, rijeke Komarnicu i Taru) kao buduća Natura 2000 područja, te da se planiranim koridorom i trasom krše odredbe Zakona o zaštiti prirode” kazala je Kovačević za CIN-CG.

Alternativa, prema njenim riječima nije izabrana jer bi izbjegavajući NP Lovćen bila duža 18 kilometara i skuplja 7,74 miliona, a u slučaju NP Durmitor to je značilo dodatnih  29 kilometara i 8,35 miliona eura više.

Kovačević  naglašava da je dalekovodom posebno ugrožen vizuelni i pejzažni identitet Durmitora i Tare: “Klasifikovan kao visoko osjetljiv, netolerantan na promjene, te je već tada bilo jasno da će kombinovani stubovi za dalekovode visine 40-50m kroz Durmitor i kanjon rijeke Tare, značajno ugroziti jedan od najvažnijih kriterijuma zbog kojeg je ovo područje proglašeno UNESCO prirodnom baštinom”.

Trasa dalekovoda na dva mjesta prekida mapu Emerald zone NP Lovćen, vidi se iz elaborata za dalekovod "Lastva - Čevo" iz novembra 2014. godine koji je CIN-CG dobio po Zakonu o slobodnom pristupu informacijama. Elaborat je radio biro “Medix” Ljiljane Vuksanović za potrebe CGES. 

I biolog Vuk Iković, predstavnik organizacije KOD, ističe kako je vidljivo, da je dalekovod uzrokovao gubitak vizuelnog identiteta Lovćena, narušavajući, pored pejzažne, i biološku vrijednost parka.

Iz KOD-a smatraju da se, ukoliko se nisu mogli zaobići nacionalni parkovi, trebalo odlučiti za podzemni kabl. To ne bi bio izuzetak, jer je oko 5,5 kilometara podzemnog kabla postavljeno od jadranske obale do konvertorske stanice u Lastvi. 

"Možda bi neka druga država imala opravdanje da ne koristi podzemni kabal, ali ne i Crna Gora – jer smo Ustavom definisani kao ekološka država. Naša država treba da bude puna šuma, a ne premrežena kablovima, gajtanima i cijevima" kazao je Iković za CIN-CG.

Iz CGES su rekli za CIN-CG da je razmotrena i opcija polaganja podzemnih kablova u kombinaciji sa nadzemnim dalekovodom, ali da se takvo rješenje "pored toga što može da unese smetnje, odnosno značajne probleme u rad prenosnog sistema, izbjegava i u međunarodnoj praksi". 

“Takav način gradnje dalekovoda bio bi i ekonomski neisplativ, naročito imajući u vidu konfiguraciju terena, odnosno planinsku topografiju i šume, gdje bi radovi na polaganju podzemnog kabla bili daleko kompleksniji, obimniji, praćeni miniranjem terena, što bi uslovilo i mnogo veći uticaj na životnu sredinu i društvo u cjelini”, tvrde iz CGES.

Tokom izbora koridora, kako ističu iz CGES u odgovorima na pitanja CIN-CG, vodilo se računa da se zaobiđu zaštićena područja, izbjegne fragmentacija nacionalnih parkova, kao i da se u što većoj mjeri koriste trase postojećih dalekovoda od 110 kilovolti.

U dokumentu EBRD-a stoji da je trasa dalekovoda na pojedinim djelovima NP Lovćen širine i do 100 metara. Iković ističe da se štetne posljedice najčešće javljaju “na udaljenosti kilometar od same trase”. On kaže da provlačenje dalekovoda ili puta onemogućava dijelu životinja da dođu do hranilišta ili prostora za razmnožavanje. Da bi pojedine vrste prešle iz jednog u drugi dio šume moraju biti izložene suncu, što će "za mnoge od njih biti smrtonosno". Ali koje će biti posljedice nije jasno, jer u elaboratu o procjeni uticaja na životnu sredinu za dalekovod Čevo – Pljevlja, ističe Iković, piše da ona nije detaljno istražena.

"Ukoliko sa velikom pouzdanošću ne znate u kakvom je stanju priroda, onda ne možete ni znati kako će jedan dalekovod uticati na životinjski svijet i koje mjere bi trebalo propisati za smanjenje negativnog uticaja. Ljekar vam ne može propisati ljekove prije nego što uspostavi dijagnozu ", upozorava Iković.

Pojedine šumske vrste koje su aktivne tokom obdanice moraju da pređu brisani prostor i da budu direktno izložene suncu. Ovo je kobno za vrste koje brzo gube vodu kao što su vodozemci 

Iković ističe da su, na primjer, daždevnjaci na listi zaštićenih životinja Crne Gore i visoko su osjetljivi na promjene temperature.

“Ukoliko brisani prostor prođe kroz reproduktivni centar populacije daždevnjaka (npr. jezerce ili bara), onda će ta vrsta sa tog lokaliteta nestati, jer nema gdje da polaže jaja. Slično se dešava ukolko trasa u vidu barijere sprečava daždevnjake da dođu do lokve,” kazao je sagovornik CIN-CG-a.

Dalekovod nije trasiran najbezbolnijim putem po prirodu već je, prema mišljenju Ikovića, projektovan “po sitno-sopstveničkim interesima”.

On podsjeća da nacionalnih parkovi, osim prirodnog bogatstva imaju i snažnu turističku dimenziju. Prema zvaničnim podacima svih pet prošle godine posjetilo je 600.000 osoba, najviše Durmitor.

I ornitolog Bojan Zeković iz Centra za proučavanje ptica (CZIP) kaže za CIN-CG da dodatno brine to što je "prostor Jezerske površi na Durmitoru, posebno oko Bara Žugića važan za migraciju grabljivica,” koje su ujedno i najrizičnija grupa zbog mogućnosti da stradaju od strujnog udara ili sudara sa instalacijama.

Zeković kaže da je neophodan dalji monitoring da se vidi koje su to vrste i na kojim djelovima najugroženije, ali i sugeriše postavljanje ometača i izolatora.

Portparolka EBRD Sesilija Kalatrava kazala je za CIN-CG da su prilikom izbora trase dogovorili “mjere sa CGES kako bi se umanjile posljedice u NP, uključujući lokalne analize za postavljanje stubova i tajming za građevinske radove koji su van sezone ugnježdavanja i parenja ptica”.

Za razliku od ekoloških organizacija Green Hom, KOD, CZIP i drugih, iz Javnog preduzeća Nacionalni parkovi tvrde za CIN-CG da kompletna trasa dalekovoda ide kroz treću zonu oba parka, koja, po Zakonu o zaštiti prirode podrazumijeva da se mogu razvijati naselja i prateća infrastruktura.

S obzirom da je Terna, umjesto podmorskog kabla od 1200MW postavila upola manji, ekonomista Dejan Mijović smatra da postojeća visoko-naponska prenosna mreža, izgrađena uz podršku Svjetske banke 70-tih godina prošlog vijeka, a koja spaja sve države bivše Jugoslavije, može sasvim kvalitetno da servisira svu trgovinu električnom energijom Crne Gore i njenih susjeda sa Italijom. 

“Investicija CGES-a u gradnju trafo stanice Lastva i njeno povezivanje sa postojećom prenosnom mrežom bila je racionalna i opravdana. Međutim, sasvim nepotrebno se požurilo sa gradnjom novog dalekovoda do Pljevalja i uništavanjem nacionalnih parkova nakon što je italijanska Terna odustala od polaganja druge žile kabla od 600MW, i to bez ikakve garancije da će to uraditi u doglednom roku. Stoga bi za CGES i Crnu Goru bilo najracionalnije da se odmah prekine dalja gradnja dalekovoda i korišćenje nepotrošenog dijela zajma EBRD. Čak i da se italijanski partner u međuvremenu predomisli, treba razmontirati dio dalekovoda koji je potpuno devastirao naše najljepše prirodne predjele i ugrozio opstanak lokalnog stanovništva, jer ih je učinio nepodobnim za razvoj ruralnog turizma. U svakom slučaju, potrebno je uraditi detaljnu cost-benefit analizu alternativnih opcija gradnje, tj. mogućnosti zaobilaženja ili polaganja podzemnog kabla kroz najosljetivije predjele, jer to nikad nije propisno učinjeno. Ubijeđen sam da bi takva analiza pokazala da postoji rješenje čije bi koristi za društvo bile znatno veće od nešto uvećanih troškova gradnje”, ocijenio je Mijović u razgovoru za CIN-CG. 

On podsjeća da je polazni motiv Terni bio da omogući uvoz jevtine električne energije iz regiona, jer se mogla plasirati po višim cijenama u Italiji. Računali su na veliki uvoz iz postojećih i novoizgrađenih proizvodnih kapaciteta u regionu, ne samo zelene energije, za što je bio potreban kabl od 1.200MW.  

“Odustali su kad su uvidjeli da se dešava obrnuto, da se u Italiji grade mnogobrojne, tržišno konkurentne elektrane (koje mogu preživjeti bez subvencija države) na bazi vjetra i sunca, dok Crna Gora i ostale zemlje regiona ne realizuju planirane investicije u preskupe i neisplative termoelektrane i hidroelektrane” kazao je Mijović.

Terna nije odgovorila na pitanja CIN-CG-a, da li se i kada očekuje postavljanje drugog podmorskog kabla, a iz CGES-a su rekli da je to “prvenstveno vezano za buduće potrebe tržišta električne energije kako na Balkanskom, tako i na Apeninskom poluostrvu”. Pozivajući se na izvršnog direkotra TERNE Luiđija Ferarisa, italijanski mediji su objavili da se druga žila može očekivati tek 2026-2027. 

Iz CGES-a su ranije kazali za CIN-CG da se sa radovima na izgradnji dalekovoda kroz NP Durmitor još nije počelo, osim pripreme za sječu šume na pristupnim putevima i trasi dalekovoda na teritoriji Žabljaka. Pandemija COVID-19 je, ističu, djelimično usporila radove, ali će pokušati da završe na vrijeme. 

“Planom je predviđeno da se radovi na izgradnji DV Čevo – Pljevlja završe do kraja 2021. godine,” stoji u odgovoru CGES-a. 

Ukupan budžet projekta dalekovoda je oko 106 miliona eura. Zaključno sa 2019, potrošeno je više od 95 miliona eura. Izgradnja sekcije „Lastva-Čevo“ iznosila je oko 31, dok je za dio „Čevo-Pljevlja“ opredijeljeno oko 40 miliona eura. 

Preko imanja, pa šta bude

Upornost CGES da prođe dalekovodom kuda je naumio pogodio je i dio građana. Cetinjanin Radomir Martinović svakog drugog dana ide u Ulcinj po mlijeko od kojeg pravi i prodaje sir. Stado krava iz Nacionalnog parka Lovćen preselio je na jug, nakon što su preko njegovog imanja postavljeni dalekovodi.

Na imanju, nekoliko kilometara prije Ivanovnih korita, osim dvije kuće, on ima i nedovršen motel. Problemi su, tvrdi, počeli kada je komisija Uprave za nekretnine sačinjena od četiri sudska vještaka utvrdila da u “koridoru ove dionice dalekovoda nema stambenih ili drugih građevinskih objekata”. 

Nakon žalbe Martinovića, ista komisija tri mjeseca kasnije zabilježila je da“dalekovodi dijagonalno dijele obradivo poljoprivredno zemljište i restlovi ostaju sa jugozapadne strane u znatno manjoj površini, sa porodičnim stambenim objektom (kućom) i pomoćnim objektom.”. 

U dokumentu komisije Uprave za nekretnine od sredine jula 2013. godine, a u koji je CIN-CG imao uvid, navodi se zabrinutost "da postoji mogućnost da električno i magnetno polje štetno utiču na zdravlje ljudi, jer podstiču razvoj malignih oboljenja, leukemije kod djece, da razaraju imunološki system organizma, stvaraju suicidne nagone kod ljudi koji duže borave u zoni dalekovoda".

Komisija je ocijenila da CGES treba da razmotri mogućnost izmještanja trase dalekovoda. Martinović kaže da su njegovi rođaci nudili da dalekovodi pređu preko njihovih imanja. Iz CGES-a su za CIN-CG, međutim, rekli da su tokom 2017. godine analizirali kako da izbjegnu imanje Martinovića, ali, “nažalost, ni vlasnik, ni njegove komšije i rođaci nijesu pokazali spremnost za prihvatanje kompromisnog rješenja”. 

“…Razmatrana je i eventualna pravična naknada za nepokretnosti u njegovom vlasništvu koje su predmet eksproprijacije, ali imenovani nije bio saglasan sa predloženim,” kazali su iz državne kompanije.

Martinović ističe da su mu nudili oko četvrt miliona, ali da su strani vještaci utvrdili da je njegovo imanje vrijedno tri miliona eura. Zadovoljio bi se i sa dva miliona, da kupi drugu zemlju, izgradi motel i sa sinovima nastavi porodični biznis.

Do dogovora nije došlo, a CGES objašnjava da je na osnovu odluka Uprave za nekretnine i Osnovnog suda u Cetinju, postavio dalekovod preko imanja “kako je to, uostalom, predviđeno DPP-om i izdatom građevinskom dozvolom, jer vlasnik zemljišta nije dozvoljavao izvođenje bilo kakvih radova”.

Iz organizacija KOD, koja se  bavila ovim i još nekoliko slučajeva, kažu da, CGES nije pristupio na fer osnovama obeštećenju lokalnog stanovništa.  

 "Samo u 2017. godini CGES je prihodovao 34,7 miliona eura uz dobit od 4,7 miliona eura. Oni su porodici koju smo pratili nudili 2,3 eura po metru kvadratnom, iako nalaz vještaka kaže da će značajno biti umanjena mogućnost korišćenja. U okolini zemljište se prodaje preko 20 eura po metri kvadratnom", kazao je Iković.

Promet do maksimuma

Prema podacima CGES, od puštanja u rad podmorskog kabla do kraja avgusta, uključujući tranzit preko crnogorskog sistema, iz Italije je uvezeno 916.631,59 MWh, dok je izvezeno u tu zemlju 916.641,03 MWh.

Uprkos značajnim izazovima i poremećajima na tržistu električne energije pojavom pandemije korona virusa, dosadašnji rezultati ne samo što idu u prilog tezi o isplativosti projekta podmorskog kabla, nego i prevazilaze očekivanja kompanije, ocjenjuju iz CGES, ističući da su oni “bez obzira kada će druga žila biti položena”, dobili na raspolaganje dio kapaciteta podmorskog kabla od 200 MW,  koji je na početku projekta bio definisan.

Uvidom u podatke na sajtu, može se vidjeti da je često korišten maksimum prenosne moći kabla od 600 MW.

"Prihodi operatora prenosnog sistema potiču od alokacije prekograničnih prenosnih kapaciteta. CGES je na do sada izvršenim aukcijama dodjele prekograničnih kapaciteta na granici sa Italijom prihodovao 4.435.201,93€, dok je za devet  mjeseci ove godine prihod po osnovu alokacije prekograničnih kapaciteta sa Italijom, 3.755.552,57," navodi se u odgovoru CGES-a.

Miloš RUDOVIĆ

The transmission lines pass through the strictly protected area of Durmitor and Emerald areas of Lovćen and the rivers Komarnica, Tara, and Ćehotina. The project worth 106 million is also questionable economically after the Italians halved the submarine cable

The 400-kilovolt transmission line, which should link the south with the north of Montenegro, as a continuation of the undersea power interconnector of the Italian company TERNA, will irreversibly endanger nature in the Lovćen and Durmitor national parks and cause significant damage to the rivers of Komarnica, Tara and Ćehotina.

Despite warnings that the transmission line could go another route or underground through the parks, the authorities did not care enough about the environmental damage, but opted for the shortest alternative, in order to save 16 million euros. Thus, parts of national parks will be cut off, plant and animal species endangered, and the landscapes due to which these areas have been inscribed on the UNESCO list destroyed.

The Environmental Impact Assessment Study for the Čevo - Pljevlja corridor, conducted by “Liming project” bureau owned by Željko Asanović, states that forest habitats will suffer more damage due to fragmentation along the entire route, while non-forest habitats where transmission lines are installed will be irretrievably destroyed. The study specifies that, in addition to the territory of the Durmitor National Park, the transmission line route will have a direct impact on two Emerald sites - Komarnica and Ćehotina.

"The construction of the transmission line will destroy smaller areas of NATURA 2000 habitats in the Komarnica canyon, Sinjajevina, and the Ćehotina valley. There are no rare habitats among them in Montenegro,” it is stated in the study, which the Center for Investigative Journalism of Montenegro (CIN-CG) received from the Environmental Protection Agency. Apart from the canyons of the Komarnica and Tara, as it is pointed out, transmission lines pose a special threat to birds of prey through collision with electric vires during the capture of prey. However, the authors of the study believe that, given the narrow space of the route, "the survival of any species will not be called into question."

Emerald is an ecological network made up of areas of special conversation interest. It operates in parallel with the Natura 2000 program in the European Union.

Energy experts are also questioning the economic viability of this transmission line and the investment of 106 million euros, because the submarine cable was ceremoniously put into operation on November 15 last year, only half of the announced capacity, 600 instead of 1,200 megawatts. That is why the transmission of electricity is performed without any problems by the existing network of transmission lines.

Savings was the main goal for the creditors as well. A document from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), which provided a 60 million euro worth loan to the Montenegrin Electrical Transmission System (MNE: CGES) for the 106 million euro worth project, points out that one corridor solution avoiding both national parks was analyzed in the Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) in which the Center for Investigative Journalism of Montenegro (CIN-CG) had an insight to.

"This corridor would be over 200 km long compared to the proposed 152.5 km corridor, and longer for about 50 km . This would raise costs by about 16,000,000 EUR, or about 27 percent. This alternative was not considered economically feasible," it is stated in the document.

Economic savings and a shorter route means the transmission line to pass 11 kilometers through the Lovćen National Park and another three kilometers through the Durmitor National Park.

The EBRD's website states that they consulted several environmental NGOs to assist CGES in preparing the ESIA in line with the EU Directive and the bank's requirements.

One of them is Green Home, whose executive director Natasa Kovacevic emphasized for CIN-CG, that they have warned the EBRD that this project is not following the principles of environmental sustainability and asked it to refrain from financing it in the foreseeable future unless all issues are resolved adequately.

During public hearings on environmental impact assessments organized by the EBRD and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), three key issues were highlighted - the environmental damage of the project, socio-economic justification and shortcomings in spatial planning.

“We tried to point out that the planned transmission line passes through the zone of strict protection of NP Durmitor and the second zone of NP Lovćen and additionally passes through four Emerald areas (Lovćen, Durmitor, the rivers Komarnica and Tara) as future Natura 2000 areas, and that the planned corridor and route violates the provisions of the Law on Nature Protection, " Kovacevic told CIN-CG.

According to her, the alternative was not chosen because avoiding the Lovćen National Park would be 18 kilometers longer and 7.74 million more expensive, and in the case of the Durmitor National Park, that would mean an additional 29 kilometers and 8.35 million euros.

Kovačević emphasizes that the visual and landscape identity of Durmitor and the Tara River is especially endangered by the transmission line: "Classified as highly sensitive, intolerant of changes, and it was already clear that the combined 40-50 meters transmission line poles through Durmitor and the Tara River canyon would significantly jeopardize one of the most important criteria for declaring this area a UNESCO natural heritage site."

The route of the transmission line in two places cuts off the map of the Emerald zone of NP Lovćen, which can be seen from the study for the transmission line "Lastva - Čevo" from November 2014, which CIN-CG received under the Law on Free Access to Information. The study done for the needs of CGES was conducted by the "Medix" bureau whose founder and executive director is Ljiljana Vuksanović.

Biologist Vuk Iković, a representative of the organization KOD, also points out that the transmission line caused the loss of the visual identity of Lovćen, distorting, in addition to the landscape, the biological value of the park.

The KOD believes that, if national parks could not be bypassed, an underground cable should have been chosen. That would not be an exception, because about 5.5 kilometers of underground cable was laid from the Adriatic coast to the converter station in Lastva.

"Maybe some other country would have a justification for not using the underground cable, but not Montenegro since it is defined by the Constitution as an ecological state. Our state should be covered by forests, not cables, cords, and pipes," Ikovic told CIN-CG.

CGES told CIN-CG that the option of laying underground cables in combination with an overhead transmission line was considered, but that such a solution "in addition to introducing disturbances, i.e. significant problems in the operation of the transmission system, is also avoided in international practice."

"Such a way of building the transmission lines would be economically unprofitable, especially having in mind the configuration of the terrain, i.e. mountain topography and forests, where the works on laying the underground cable would be far more complex, extensive, accompanied by mining, which would have a much greater impact on the environment and society as a whole,” CGES claims.

During the selection of the corridor, as pointed out by CGES in the answers to the CIN-CG's questions, care was taken to bypass protected areas, avoid fragmentation of national parks, as well as to use the routes of the existing 110-kilovolt transmission lines as much as possible.

The EBRD document states that the route of the transmission line in some parts of the Lovćen National Park is up to 100 meters wide. Ikovic points out that the harmful consequences most often occur "at a distance of one kilometer from the route itself". He says that building of a transmission line or a road prevents part of the animals from reaching the feeding ground or breeding area. Certain species must be exposed to the sun to move from one part of the forest to another which may be "fatal for many of them." But it not clear what consequences it may have, because in the Study on the Environmental Impact Assessment for the Transmission Line Čevo - Pljevlja, Iković points out, it is written that it has not been investigated in detail.

"If you do not know with great certainty the state of nature, then you cannot even know how a transmission line will affect the animal world and what measures should be prescribed to reduce the negative impact. The doctor cannot prescribe you medication before making a diagnosis ", Iković warns.

Some forest species that are active during the day must cross the cleared area and be directly exposed to the sun. This is fatal for species that lose water quickly such as amphibians.

Ikovic points out that, for example, salamanders are on the list of protected animals in Montenegro and are highly sensitive to temperature changes.

"If the cleared area passes through the reproductive center of the salamander population (e.g. ponds or puddle), then that species will disappear from that locality because there is no place to lay eggs. A similar thing happens if the route in the form of a barrier prevents salamanders from reaching the pond," Ikovic said.

Nature was not taken into account when the transmission line was built, but, in Iković's opinion, it was designed "according to petty-own interests".

He reminds that national parks, in addition to natural wealth, also have a strong tourist dimension. According to official data, all five were visited by 600,000 people last year, mostly Durmitor.

Ornithologist Bojan Zekovic from the Center for Protection and Research of Birds (CZIP) also told CIN-CG that he is additionally concerned because "the area of Jezerska Površ (Plateau of Lakes) on Durmitor, especially around Bara Zugića, is important for the migration of predators," which are also the high-risk group due to the possibility of death from electric shock or collision with installations.

Zekovic says that further monitoring is necessary to see which species are most endangered and in which parts, but he also suggests the installation of jammers and insulators.

Cecilia Calatrava, a communication specialist at EBRD, told CIN-CG that during the route selection they agreed on "measures with CGES to reduce the consequences in the NP, including local analyzes for setting up poles and timing for construction works that are out of the season of nesting and mating birds."

Unlike the environmental organizations Green Home, KOD, CZIP, and others, the Public Enterprise National Parks claims for CIN-CG that the entire transmission line route goes through the third zone of both parks, which, according to the Law on Nature Protection implies that settlements and accompanying infrastructure can be built.

Considering that Terna, instead of a 1200MW submarine cable, installed half as small, economist Dejan Mijović believes that the existing high-voltage transmission network, built with the support of the World Bank in the 1970s, and which connects all countries of the former Yugoslavia, can service all electricity trade of Montenegro and its neighbors with Italy.

"CGES's investment in the construction of the Lastva transformer station and its connection to the existing transmission network was rational and justified. However, the construction of a new transmission line to Pljevlja and the destruction of national parks was unnecessarily rushed after the Italian Terna gave up laying the second core of the 600MW cable, without any guarantee that it would do so in the foreseeable future. Therefore, it would be most rational for CGES and Montenegro to immediately stop further construction of the transmission line and the use of the unspent part of the EBRD loan. Even if the Italian partner changes its mind in the meantime, a part of the transmission line should be dismantled, which completely devastated our most beautiful natural areas and endangered the survival of the local population, because it made them unsuitable for the development of rural tourism. In any case, it is necessary to carry out a detailed cost-benefit analysis of alternative construction options, i.e. the possibility of bypassing or laying an underground cable through the most vulnerable areas, as this has never been done properly. I am convinced that such an analysis would show that there is a solution whose benefits for society would be significantly greater than the slightly increased construction costs," Mijovic said in an interview with CIN-CG.

He reminds that Terna's initial motive was to enable the import of cheap electricity from the region because it could be sold at higher prices in Italy. They counted on large imports from existing and newly built production facilities in the region, not just green energy, which required a 1,200MW cable.

"They gave up when they realized things were not going according to plan, that numerous, market-competitive solar and wind power plants (financially viable without state subsidies) were being built in Italy, while Montenegro and other countries in the region were not realizing planned investments in expensive and unprofitable thermal and hydropower plants ", Mijović said.

Terna did not answer CIN-CG's questions about whether and when another submarine cable is expected to be installed, and CGES said that it was "primarily related to the future needs of the electricity market in both the Balkans and the Apennine Peninsula."  Referring to the executive director of TERNA, Luigi Ferraris, the Italian media announced that the second cable can be expected only in 2026-2027.

CGES previously told CIN-CG that the works on the construction of the transmission line through the Durmitor National Park have not started yet, except for the preparations for cutting down the forest on the access roads and the transmission line route on the territory of Zabljak. The COVID-19 pandemic, they point out, has partially slowed down the works, but they will try to finish them on time.

"The plan envisages that the works on the construction of the TL Čevo - Pljevlja will be completed by the end of 2021," it was stated in the response from CGES.

The total budget of the transmission line project is around 106 million euros. As of 2019, more than 95 million euros have been spent. The construction of the "Lastva-Čevo" section amounted to about 31, while about 40 million euros were allocated for the "Čevo-Pljevlja" part.

Through the estate, no matter what

The persistence of CGES to pass the transmission line through national parks will affect citizens as well. Radomir Martinović from Cetinje goes to Ulcinj every other day to get milk to make and then sell cheese. He had moved a herd of cows from the Lovćen National Park to the south after transmission lines were installed over his property.

On the estate, a few kilometers before a popular picnic spot Ivanova korita, in addition to two houses, Martinovic also has an unfinished motel. The problems, he claims, started when the commission of the Real Estate Administration, composed of four court experts, determined that "there should not be residential or other construction facilities in the corridor of this section of the transmission line".

After Martinovic's complaint, the same commission noted three months later that "transmission lines diagonally divide arable agricultural land and the small part of land remains on the southwest side, with a family house and an auxiliary facility."

The document of the commission of the Real Estate Administration from mid-July 2013, which CIN-CG had access to, states the concern "that there is a possibility that electric and magnetic fields adversely affect human health, because they encourage the development of malignant diseases, leukemia in children, to destroy the body's immune system, create suicidal instincts in people who stay longer in the transmission line zone ".

The Commission assessed that CGES should consider the possibility of relocating the transmission line route. Martinović says that his relatives offered the transmission lines to cross their properties. CGES told CIN-CG, however, that in 2017 they analyzed how to avoid Martinovic's property, but, "unfortunately, neither the owner nor his neighbors and relatives showed readiness to accept a compromise solution."

“… A fair compensation for the real estate which is the subject of expropriation has also been considered, but Mr. Martinovic did not agree with the proposed one,” the state-owned company said.

Martinović points out that they offered him about a quarter of a million, but that foreign experts estimated that his property was worth three million euros. He would be satisfied with two million, to buy another land, build a motel and continue the family business with his sons.

No agreement was reached, and CGES explains that based on the decisions of the Real Estate Administration and the Basic Court in Cetinje, it installed a transmission line over the property "as provided by the Detailed Spatial Plan (DSP) and the issued building permit, because the landowner did not allow any works ”.

The KOD organization, which has dealt with this and several other cases, says that CGES did not approach the compensation of the local population on a fair basis.

"In 2017 alone, CGES earned 34.7 million euros with a profit of 4.7 million euros. They offered the family we had contact with 2.3 euros per square meter, although the expert's report says that the possibility of use will be significantly reduced. In the vicinity, the land is sold for over 20 euros per square meter ", Iković said.

The maximum capacity

According to CGES data, from the commissioning of the submarine cable until the end of August, including transit through the Montenegrin system, 916,631.59 MWh was imported from Italy, while 916,641.03 MWh was exported to that country.

Despite significant challenges and disruptions in the electricity market with the emergence of the coronavirus pandemic, the results so far not only support the thesis of the cost-effectiveness of the submarine cable project but also exceed the company's expectations, CGES said, pointing out that they "regardless of when the second core will be laid", received at their disposal a part of the capacity of the submarine cable of 200 MW, which was defined at the beginning of the project.

Based on the data on the site, it can be seen that a maximum cable transmission capacity of 600 MW was often used.

“Revenues of transmission system operators come from the allocation of cross-border transmission capacities. CGES earned € 4,435,201.93 at the auctions of cross-border capacity allocation on the border with Italy, while in the first nine months of this year, the revenue from the allocation of cross-border capacity with Italy was € 3,755,552.57,” the CGES stated.

Miloš RUDOVIĆ