If there had been expertise and intelligence, we would have celebrated 29 years since the self-proclamation of Montenegro - an ecological state, which was also included in the Constitution of Montenegro. From being a truly ecological state, we have moved backwards significantly more than we should have moved forward to really make this country an ecological one.
I imagine Žabljak back then - after the declaration of Montenegro as ecological, how the delegates lit cigarettes, threw the cigarette butts on the grass and extinguished them with three jerks left and right. I would have a cigarette! So much for delegates.
In the following years, especially after gaining independence, there was the concretization of the coast, the concretization of everything, the sale of ancient trees, Russian villages that are still not alive, but are in prestigious locations. Selling everything by which we could be branded precisely as an ecological country.
Suffocation of domestic product. Attempt to destroy the Saltworks in Ulcinj. "Valorization" of Valdanos, which with its olive groves together with Bašbuljuk looks like a garden of paradise. Destruction of Budva. Putting Kotor in a position to lose its status as a city under the protection of UNESCO on the list of world cultural heritage. Incredible pressure to build cottages in the National Park of Montenegro - especially the National Park Durmitor. Pollution of NP Skadar Lake. And, of course, the black spots of ecology - Pljevlja and Nikšić. Lack of adequate wastewater treatment plants. Destruction of forests through dubious concession contracts. And announcements of the flooding of rivers due to the construction of dams. And finally, of course, MHE - all in a pipe! Not a drop more! We could go on and on.
Let's go back to Žabljak. The Durmitor Hotel, which was architecturally brilliantly integrated into the landscape, was demolished there. That trip of luxury in nature can only live in ignorance in the heads of former henchmen in power. The concept of luxury is ecology and it is the preserved environment and the national parks and natural beauties that we have - nature parks, lakes and rivers, mountains and mountain ranges. If the most expensive hotel in Ljubljana is in a 600-year-old building, which has preserved its ancient appearance from the outside, why did we have to demolish the Durmitor Hotel? To make older and more beautiful again? Hotel Durmitor was built in 1939. Very quickly it became a war hospital. Maybe to those who go to Rome or Milan to buy shoes, it seems functionally and economically outdated, but in a natural environment, if it was reconstructed in its dimensions - it would be an ecological luxury for nature lovers.
I'm listening to a report on RCG about investing in Kolašina - someone who should know something, says that the new hotel, luxurious - like no other, which is being built on the ski resort itself, will offer many tempting things, among which is a restaurant with Mediterranean cuisine. I imagine myself eating gambores when I come back from skiing. Nothing kačamak, nothing sour milk, nothing Kolašin sheet cheese, nothing trout in cream, nothing kastradina with podvark - nothing from Kolašin.
If there were no dedicated people from the NGO sector, this country would have become an anti-ecological country. Thank you!
We still have time to get out of the deep deficit to the day when Montenegro is declared an ecological country, and then we start in the right direction.
Ecology should first be legally regulated, in order to legally compel the polluters to install purifiers at their own expense, in a very defined short time, otherwise without environmental consent there is no continuation of work. Waste water purifiers and waste management must be a priority and must be recognized as a major infrastructure project in Montenegro.
And let's start with education. Ecology is taught from childhood. Love for nature. And it is love for Montenegro. It is ugly that as someone who has been visiting the natural beauties of this country for more than a decade, I realize that Montenegro is actually a big country. It would take me another lifetime to visit it, but I am also a witness that some people who have visited from Finland to Argentina - have never even been to Mrtvice canyon. And it will leave you breathless. There is also a light tour.
This is where we come to education. From an early age, our children must be systematically educated in the area of knowledge of ecology and natural beauty of Montenegro. And that should be a mandatory part of education in the education system even in elementary school. A daily tour of, for example, Vražje, Riblje and Crni Jezera on Durmitor - with stories about stećci and Jabučil - the winged horse. The view from Podgora to the Tara canyon. The wind from Volujak that talks. Heart-shaped Trnovac lake. At Trnovački, I met an excursion of teenagers from Belgium - ours were not there. And for that you need water, sandwiches and maybe 10 euros for transportation. First, elementary school students need to know what they have.
When you go to London, Moscow or Scandinavian countries, even if it is enough to go to Slovenia, you will see what their school yards look like. They are not parking spaces. They are not concrete. There is no so-called football balloons. They have lawns and landscape architecture.
What is necessary is that our children learn to live with nature in schools from an early age. And it's very simple - JP Gradsko zelenilo should take on the task of arranging school yards, their greening and landscape architecture. Why not, say, botanical gardens within each school? There, children would learn in practice how much one tree and one plant means. There, the lecturer could be someone who actively deals with plants and production, ecology. Through tasks to follow the path of development of one or more plants that they follow during the school year in their yard or in a pot where they are nurtured on the balcony - they will learn that love makes you grow and that love makes you a good citizen of your country - and we only have it.
The author is a civil engineering graduate and a member of GP URA
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