The state will allocate tens of millions of euros for subsidies, buy expensive electricity, and the loss of natural resources is immeasurable, because what is destroyed once cannot be restored, said Milan Kastratović and Kočo Kočanović from the NGO Perućica.
"We think that there are elements of crime against nature and, of course, organized crime," Kastratović and Kočanović told "Vijesta".
They have been appealing to the public for months to save the Mojanska, Perućica and Zlorečica rivers, which represent one stream, and on which, for now, the construction of four mini hydro power plants is planned.
"We are asking public opinion, the state, institutions, whether state or other, the NGO sector, the international public, to join us in the fight to save nature and contribute to saving the Perućica river, which would become an example for everything else," they added. these NGO organizations.
To address the public once again, as they note, they were encouraged by the address of the US Secretary of State, John Kerry, who warned that entire rivers are disappearing in the world and that the world will be faced with a new type of migrants, which will be ecological migrants.
"We wondered how he knew about us. Those who are there and should know won't even hear about us. We are writing to the Agency for Environmental Protection, the Ministry of Economy, the Agency for Personal Data Protection and Free Access to Information. No one gives an answer, and God forbid the documentation that we have asked for more than once. What is there to hide?" Kastratović and Kočanović ask.
They add that the authorities might respond, but they think that the people have already moved away, so they have no one to write to.
"It is not clear to us that we have spent a lot of money to write the law, by harmonizing it with European laws, or that we are addressing the wrong addresses and the wrong people. Maybe they don't work there, but receive a salary, others work for them, for which there are special laws. It is not clear to us that no one is interested in the topic of the construction of mini power plants", added the NGO "Perućica".
They say that it is unbelievable that none of the large NGO organizations, which have substantial budgets, found it appropriate to send support to the NGO Perućica.
"What's more, we have a negative experience when one of them 'participated' in a fake public hearing that no one in the country knew about without them. It would be good if they don't "help" and "oppose sharply" when the matter is over and contracts are signed and concessions are concluded. Who do they work for, the energy lobby?" Kastratović and Kočanović ask.
They add that the Prosecutor's Office has its hands full, from tax evasion to the sale of state property, and note that it is a lesser sin to sell property than to obtain the right to destroy it.
"Nature is a national treasure, which is reached only in difficult moments for the people and the state. Here, it is a case of a general attack in which water flow meters, representatives of local administrations, representatives of the state who call for concessions, grant them, the agency that gives environmental approvals, various inspections are involved,'' said Kastratović and Kočanović.
They believe that the investors who invest their honestly earned money in a good business are not the only ones to blame.
"Someone will say it's impossible so many people around one MHP. Not one, but dozens that are being built or should be built. The same people sign for one, the rest is a reprint edition", concluded Kastratović and Kočanović.
CANU is not interested in this problem
The NGO Perućica says that the Montenegrin Academy of Sciences and Arts (CANU) has not yet given an opinion on the destruction of nature and national wealth, nor has it considered it appropriate to put this topic on the agenda of their department of natural sciences. "How is it possible that they are not interested in the fact that over 20 species of game live in the Perućica river basin on less than 25 km of the river's course. Not to mention the wealth of plant life, birds, amphibians, reptiles, brook trout... No one is interested in the fact that it is the habitat of otter, lynx, blind dog, grouse, two species of skunk as the most strictly protected species. Maybe it's not nature?", emphasized Kastratović and Kočanović.
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