As of January 25, the environmental movement "OZON" did not receive information related to air quality monitoring from the Environmental Protection Agency, without which, as they state, they are unable to carry out the planned analysis of air quality monitoring and inform the public about this important segment. environment, and to give recommendations for improving the current situation.
"Although through our Aarhus center, in compliance with the Law on Free Access to Information, we officially addressed the Environmental Protection Agency, the information that was delivered to us with considerable delay did not comply with the request for access to information, so we tried to get a solution by appeal to information that by the nature of things had to be delivered to us because it is public and not private data," said the executive director of the organization, Aleksandar Perović.
Ozon asked the Agency to receive:
- Mean annual PM10 values for 2015 for Podgorica, Nikšić and Pljevlja;
- Mean annual PM2,5 values for 2015 for Nikšić and Pljevlja;
- Record or information about the failure of the sampler, which is why the average daily values of suspended particles PM2,5 were not measured during January 2015 in Pljevlja;
- Record or information about the failure of the sampler, which is why the average daily values of suspended particles PM2,5 were not measured during February, March, April, May, June and July 2015 in Nikšić;
- Record or information about a malfunction of the sampler, which is why the average daily values of suspended particles PM2,5 were not measured during November 2015 in Pljevlja;
- Record or information about the service of the sampler, which is why the average daily values of suspended particles PM2,5 were not measured during December 2015 in Pljevlja and Nikšić;
- Are there data on the average daily values of PM2,5 in the period when the samplers from the state network were out of order or on service, for the municipalities of Pljevlja and Nikšić, during 2015, from some alternative sources?
- During the calculation of the average annual value of PM2,5 for the year 2014, were there data for the average daily values of PM2,5 for the month of December of that year, i.e. were they taken into account when obtaining the value of 41,53μg/m3 for the average annual concentration which is shown in the Information on the State of the Environment for 2014, which was done by the Environmental Protection Agency?
- How did the Environmental Protection Agency inform the public about technical malfunctions at the stations that make up the national air monitoring network, when specifically it is about the samplers that did not measure the average daily values of suspended particles PM2,5 in the municipalities of Nikšić and Pljevlja?
"Since to date we have not received any information either from the Agency for the Protection of Personal Data and Free Access to Information, to which we complained as a second-level authority, or from the Agency for Environmental Protection, we decided to introduce this case to the entire Montenegrin public, but also relevant international institutions dealing with the Aarhus Convention as this kind of policy further deepens the gap between competent institutions and civil society organizations operating in the field of environmental protection, which are independent and dedicated to the protection of the public interest, we are more concerned about the well-founded suspicion that they are trying to manipulate the public and prevent them from pointing out the wrong decisions and omissions when it comes to the method of monitoring air quality, especially in the part of adequate and timely information to the public, which is precisely in the domain of the Environmental Protection Agency, i.e. the Aarhus Center Podgorica, which has a key role," says Perović.
Hiding such important information, he adds, "leaves room for justified doubts of the interested public about the very quality of the environmental decision-making process and the openness of competent institutions for cooperation with the civil sector."
"Especially after the last case of unfounded malicious accusations by the first person of the Environmental Protection Agency and at the expense of non-governmental organizations that publicly pointed out the problem of air pollution, during the presentation of the Study of the Impact of Air Pollution on Human Health in Pljevlja, Nikšić and Podgorica, which was carried out by the World Health Organization organization and the Institute for Public Health," Ozon said.
In that organization, they believe that inas far as the so-called of the transitional government, "that the trend of party employment in the most responsible positions in all areas, including in the field of environment, will undoubtedly continue".
"Necessary personnel changes must be made. Not expecting party cadres to resign based on ethical and moral principles, we publicly call on Prime Minister Đukanović to dismiss all those who do not have the capacity to manage the institutions of the system in a responsible and transparent manner," say Ozon.
Bonus video:
