Threat in Montenegrin water supply systems: In the EU, asbestos pipes were replaced long ago, we will still wait

According to data that Radio Free Europe (RSE) received from the Ministry of Sustainable Development and Tourism of Montenegro (MORT), citizens will still have to wait for the replacement of water pipes that contain asbestos, which have long since been removed from use in the European Union due to the carcinogenic effect of asbestos. (EU).

In Nîme, as stated in MORT's response to RFE's inquiry, government documents plan that the water system renovation project will be carried out in several phases.

"The document Projection of the long-term supply of water in Montenegro until 2040, which was adopted by the Government in March 2017, contains a proposal for measures until 2040 by municipality and a map of the existing and planned water supply systems. For the implementation of the measures from this strategic document, a total of more than 232 million euros (by 2040), of which 123 million euros by 2025," RSE was informed by MORT.

MORT confirmed that due to the danger to human health and environmental pollution, the EU adopted several directives that prohibit the placing on the market of asbestos products in the member states, and Montenegro transferred the directives into the national legislation. They stated, however, that "the replacement of water asbestos cement pipes is not an obligation of Montenegro on the way to fulfilling the EU requirements for the closure of Chapter 27 - Environment and Climate Change".

"The EU directives do not explicitly require candidate countries to replace asbestos cement water pipes, but each country aims to take all measures to prevent possible asbestos pollution, in order to protect human health and the environment," MORT further states.

What do the Institute for Public Health say?

Speaking about the potential danger and carcinogenic effect of water passing through asbestos cement pipes on human health, hygiene specialist at the Institute of Public Health Ivana Joksimović says that drinking water in Montenegro is regularly controlled and there is no reason for concern.

"Based on the currently available information, I think there is no reason to worry. In any case, the water quality is being tested," Joksimović told RFE/RL, explaining how asbestos particles affect human health.

"Harmful health effects from inhaled asbestos particles are a consequence of their proven carcinogenic effect. So, that effect of asbestos particles is when they are inhaled. However, the details regarding the health effects of oral intake, which would be for example through intake of drinking water, have not yet been clarified enough. However, it is considered that this intake is far less significant from a health perspective (than the intake of asbestos particles by inhalation), because a kind of bio-film forms on the inside of the water pipes over time, which isolates the water from the pipes themselves. In this way, it can affect the microbiological quality of the water. And that is one of the reasons for regular testing of water quality, as well as maintenance of the water supply system," said Joksimović.

Asbestos in almost all water supply systems In the water supply systems in Montenegro, according to the data of the Water Supply Association of Montenegro, all municipalities, except for Plužine and Petnjica, in the north of Montenegro, have asbestos cement pipes.

Association President Bojan Lazović told RFE/RL that at the end of June last year they started the implementation of the project "Replacement of asbestos-cement pipes in the water supply networks of Montenegro". With the financial and expert assistance of UNDP, project documentation was prepared and data collected from the field.

"At the moment, the amount of asbestos pipes laid in the city's water supply systems is a little less than 610 kilometers. We have individual data for all municipalities. The most laid asbestos cement pipes are in Podgorica - over 137 kilometers, and the least in Savnik, three kilometers," said Lazović and explained that the procedure for the preparation of the Main Project for the replacement of asbestos-cement pipes in water networks is currently underway.

Unlike MORT, Lazović claims in an interview for RSE that the replacement of old asbestos cement pipes is one of the conditions that Montenegro needs to fulfill in order to close Chapter 27, as part of negotiations with the EU.

Debate in the Assembly as well

At the end of October this year, opposition Democratic Front (DF) MP Branko Radulović and former Minister of Sustainable Development Pavle Radulović discussed the potential danger to citizens' health due to asbestos water pipes, which date back to the XNUMXs, and the necessity of reconstructing the water supply system.

Both warned that water from asbestos pipes is still being drunk in Montenegro and that this is worrying.

"How many asbestos cement pipes through which water flows in Montenegro today," MP Branko Radulović asked the minister, and stated: "Know that there are 3.000 people who officially get cancer. Fifteen hundred are cured and fifteen hundred die. That are the data of the IZJ," said Radulović at the time.

Minister Radulović replied that he wanted "for the sake of the citizens to apostrophize" a few things.

"We mentioned asbestos - that is a factual situation. We are grown people, we can tell fairy tales, but asbestos pipes still exist, asbestos roofs exist, asbestos facades still exist in certain parts of Montenegro. Those citizens have been warned. I hope that the state has the strength, that where there is a social program, these things will be regulated because the citizens cannot get out of this story by themselves. And it's not just a story about asbestos, you heard that 16 water companies do not measure intake (water intended for human consumption is water that is captured from the source and has the quality prescribed for raw water). So, we don't know what they draw", said former minister Pavle Radulović.

Whose jurisdiction is it?

After that discussion in the Assembly, RSE asked the ministries in the Government for an answer, whose competence is the replacement of asbestos-cement water pipes.

Although the Minister of Sustainable Development and Tourism (MORT) Pavle Radulović spoke about this problem in the Assembly, the Ministry told RSE twice that it was not their responsibility.

"The questions you sent are not for MORT, but for the Ministry of Health (Law on the provision of health-safe water for human use) or for the Ministry of Rural Development and Agriculture, which defines water supply and water supply facilities in its Law on Water," says MORT's response.

RSE and the Ministry of Agriculture answered that the topic was not their jurisdiction.

"The Directorate for Water Management, that is, the Ministry, has nothing to do with this topic. This issue is absolutely within the jurisdiction of MORT."

RSE sent questions to the government's Office for Negotiations with the EU, i.e. to the head of the Working Group for Chapter 27, Ivana Vojinović, who is also the head of the Directorate for the Environment within the Ministry of Sustainable Development and Tourism, after which RSE received answers from the address of this ministry.

In December last year, Montenegro opened the negotiation chapter, 27 - Environment and climate change, which is one of the most demanding and difficult negotiations that the candidate country has with the European Commission. The chapter contains more than 200 legal acts within 10 areas, one of which is water quality.

As published on the website of the Office for Negotiations with the EU, according to the first government estimates, Montenegro will need more than 1 billion euros to reach European environmental standards in key areas.

Source: CSR