The Chinese company China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC) moved the course of the Tara on the section of the highway through Mateševo, although they undertook not to do so in the Elaboration of the Environmental Impact Assessment.
"It is forbidden to change the course of the river. In the case of the construction of river crossings (Tara, Morača), it is necessary to take all measures to prevent water pollution and silting", says the Elaborate, which was commissioned by the Chinese CRBC radio consortium "Inter project - Entasis doo".
The Minister of Sustainable Development, Pavle Radulović, either does not know or does not have this information from the Elaborate, because yesterday in the Parliament he announced to the deputies that this document allows the displacement of the Tara river for the construction of the Tara 1 and Tara 2 bridges.
"If the project provided for a temporary diversion... and an Eleborat of people from the profession was obtained, I can't say anything, except to confirm what I get through the reports. I am completely sure and I want to believe that the people who worked on the Elaborate and who worked on the project did not overlook such things," said Radulović.
The minister thereby denied the existence of bans foreseen by the "Inter project - Entasis doo" consortium, as well as warnings from the Strategic Environmental Impact Assessment on the DPP of the Bar-Boljare highway.
The Chinese company, after publishing the first recordings and photos of Tara, which show that the course of the river has been changed, the river bed has been moved, support pillars have been placed, and construction machines are bringing out gravel and sand, they said that "the works are in accordance with the Main Project and building permits issued to them by the Ministry of Sustainable Development and Tourism".
"Vijesti" announced yesterday that the Government knew even before the construction of the highway that any works in the bed of Tara could delete this river from the list of world biosphere reserves of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
Convinced that it was only a violation of the contractor, Radulović said yesterday that CRBC will be sanctioned, and Tara will remain the Tear of Europe.
"I don't believe, but I am completely convinced", he said.
In the Elaborate, obtained by the Research Center of MANS, it is stated that the Chinese company submitted the document to the investor - the Government of Montenegro.
Pavel Radulović's department announced yesterday that the environmental inspection report from four days ago indicates that there is no reason to stop work on the construction of the highway.
In the minutes of the environmental inspectors, as they said from the MORT, it is also stated that "unpurified water, polluted with sludge, is discharged directly into the Tara, which can lead to the turbidity of the river".
Nataša Kovačević from the NGO Green Home assessed that "the image of the tear of Europe, a UNESCO protected area and a symbol of the citizens' struggle for an ecological state, looks catastrophic today."
According to her, the valley part of the Tara, on a section slightly longer than five kilometers, in the part between Mateševo and Jabuka, "is unrecognizable, hydromorphologically degraded, with elements of a displaced river bed, changed structure of the bottom and coast with decimated biodiversity and landscape features".
"The consequences we have today on protected Montenegrin natural assets are largely the results of a poorly done and non-detailed strategic assessment of the impact on the environment, which further opened up space for manipulation of lower-level plans and programs and the circumvention of clear legal solutions in the field of nature and water protection. The key measures for preventing and reducing negative impacts on the environment prescribed by the Strategic Assessment mandate that the bed of the natural watercourse be preserved as much as possible, and the displacement of the river bed is prohibited. "During the construction of the highway, it was forbidden to deposit excavation materials in water bodies, which is the opposite of what we can see today in the bed of the Tara River, for example, at the location of Jabuka," Kovačević concluded.
MANS: If the government has nothing to hide, let it publish all the documents
MANS said yesterday that it is almost unbelievable that the Government still refuses to publish the conceptual design of the highway, on the basis of which CRBC develops further projects and obtains consents and permits, officially marking it as a secret that the public cannot have insight into.
That NGO called on the line ministries to, without delay, make public all the relevant documentation that is currently classified as secret, and especially the one that could unambiguously point to responsibility for the devastation of the Tara River.
"We believe that there is no other state, business or private interest in keeping such type of documents secret, especially if it can prevent further devastation of Tara or any other location on the highway route," MANS announced.
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