The establishment of a monitoring system represents the biggest challenge within the water management system, both for state and scientific institutions, according to the professor of the Faculty of Science, Vladimir Pešić.
Water management is one of the sub-areas within the negotiation chapter 27, which Montenegro opened in December.
When asked what the biggest challenges are in this area, Pešić told the MINA agency that the Water Framework Directive (WFD) is the basis for defining the water management system in Europe.
"Within the water management system, the establishment of a water monitoring system is the first step and probably the biggest challenge, both for state institutions whose duty it is, and for scientific institutions," said Pešić.
As he stated, the two main challenges when it comes to monitoring are transparency, which speaks of the capacity of institutions to respect standards in that area and enable all interested parties to view the monitoring, and the second is data quality.
"Data quality can only be achieved by engaging reference scientific teams and experts in this field," Pešić pointed out.
He reminded that in the European Union (EU), within every project that has an impact on the environment, significant funds for monitoring must be foreseen, because the quality of data and the right of the public to have accurate and unambiguous data are the basis of any water protection strategy. resources.
"The funds allocated for environmental monitoring and protection in the EU, which often amount to ten percent of the value of the projects, enable the work of a large number of scientific institutions and teams, create jobs, which, of course, has a positive effect on the economy," he specified. Pešić.
When asked how he assesses Montenegro's relationship with water and natural resources in general, and whether, on the example of the devastation of the protected Tara River during the construction of the highway, one can speak of a responsible relationship, Pešić said that a responsible relationship with natural resources means a responsible relationship with bidiversity, which is the focus of a large number of EU directives.
He reminded that Montenegro accepted to comply with those directives as part of its path towards reaching EU standards.
"In practice, this means that in the planning phase of capital interventions on the environment, experts from that field should be included, which, unfortunately, was not the case when it came to Tara, but also other projects in Montenegro," said Pešić.
Pešić said that every intervention has an impact on the living world, and it is impossible to avoid it. He said that, as a scientist researching biodiversity, he had the opportunity to describe endemic species not only from Montenegro, but also from Germany, the Netherlands, France and Italy.
As he stated, highways are also being built in those countries and of course there is an impact on the living world, including the species he discovered that live in the rivers in those countries.
"But in those countries there are standards that are simple, and that is to include experts in the planning process in order to propose measures to reduce the impact, to do the monitoring in the way I mentioned - to be of high quality and transparent", explained Pešić.
He added that these experts must be chosen solely on the basis of their scientific reference, and not on the basis of someone's "fitness".
"I see the decision of the Ministry of Sustainable Development and Tourism to start monitoring the Tara River, which will be done on a monthly basis, as a very positive step. This will enable us to have quality and transparent scientific data," said Pešić.
He said that he believes that the activities of the ministries of sustainable development and tourism and agriculture, which are working on the preparation of water monitoring in Montenegro in accordance with the recommendations of the Water Framework Directive, go in the direction of the policy of preserving water resources.
"Of course, it takes time for the institutions in Montenegro to become capacitated, which, I believe, is possible only in cooperation with scientific institutions, and in such a way as to develop domestic capacities that will be able to meet the increasingly demanding standards that the EU will set before us when it comes to protect water resources", said Pešić.
He pointed out that he is saying this "targetedly", because as a professor at the University who has produced a large number of master's and doctoral students in the field of monitoring and protection of aquatic ecosystems, he has an interest in seeing those young people, who have made outstanding achievements in science, engaged in scientific water resource monitoring projects.
"Honestly, much more than on the projects of non-governmental organizations whose work, of course, in the domain of raising social responsibility towards water resources, I have great respect for," added Pešić.
When asked how he comments on the expansion of the construction of small hydropower plants, and that it is in accordance with the EU's policy in the field of environmental protection, he said that, when talking about small hydropower plants, one should start from two scientific facts.
"First, scientific research has shown that the impact of several small hydroelectric power plants is much more devastating on the living world than one larger one, as well as that small hydroelectric power plants have a proven negative impact on the biodiversity of small rivers, especially on endemic species," said Pešić.
Another fact, as he stated, is that the energy contribution of small hydropower plants is, to say the least, questionable.
"Because, as is known, due to the hydrology of our rivers, which in the summer period have a very small amount of water that is below the so-called biological minimum, those power plants should not work at all in the summer period," explained Pešić.
He reminded that in many countries in the region a moratorium on the construction of small hydropower plants is proposed, and that there is an announcement about it even in Albania, which has the largest number of projects.
Pešić said that the biggest congress of European scientists dealing with water will be held in Zagreb in July, and that a strong message should be sent to Brussels and European institutions that a moratorium should be introduced on the construction of small hydropower plants in the Balkans.
"I will participate in that gathering and I will support that message, and I hope that the competent institutions in Montenegro will not wait to be the last in the Balkans to propose a moratorium," he added. When asked when Montenegro could close chapter 27, Pešić said that there is no doubt that, due to its volume and the time required, that chapter will be the last to be closed.
"The experiences of the countries that did it before us showed that the length of closing the chapter mostly depended on how well state institutions managed to include the scientific community in that chapter, and secondly, how successful they were in relying on domestic capacities when it comes to reaching standards in that area," said Pešić.
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