"No one catches fish in Lima anymore, because of the pollution they don't eat it and don't give it to children. The fish stock is reduced. It's not even ten percent of what it used to be," says Ismet Softić, president of the Sinjavac Sports and Fishing Club Center for Investigative Journalism of Montenegro (CIN-CG).
He points out that in 2009, they issued 828 sport fishing permits, and only 220 passed. Who wants to poison those closest to them and themselves with fish that once fed the people of this region.
Besides Lim, there are more than 270 illegal landfills today. There is a large number of industrial pollutants, and unprocessed waste water from the half-century-old and 185-kilometer-long sewage network in Bijelo Polje flows into the river. All that turned the river into one of the most polluted watercourses in Montenegro.
Due to pollution, trout and certain plant species are disappearing from Lim, and other species that can tolerate the discharged poisons are settling in. Experts also discovered a high concentration of heavy metals in the fish.
Although it has been declared a river of national importance, despite the warnings of experts and the obligations from Negotiating Chapter 27, state institutions are doing little to improve the condition of the Lim - the research conducted by CIN-CG showed.
The Ministry of Sustainable Development and Tourism and its Environment Protection Agency of Montenegro (EPA), as well as the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development with the Water Administration, do not have a comprehensive analysis of the Lima River, sediments, animal and plant life, soil , degree of endangerment.
The Water Administration does not have a water cadastre. They accuse the municipalities of being late with the data. The municipality of Bjelopolje has not even started the planned construction of the wastewater treatment plant. Fines for polluters are symbolic and often become obsolete. Symbolic fines of a few hundred euros for individuals, up to a thousand for companies that persistently do not install treatment plants, stimulate rather than warn polluters.
Occasional cases of fish dying or changes in the color of the river due to released poison usually end with police reports against unknown persons and endless searches without results. In the entire north of the country, the Lim and other rivers are monitored by one inspector.
THERE WAS A PEACE, AND THE INVESTIGATION IS ONGOING
The source of Lima is as clear as a tear. The river originates from Lake Plav, collecting streams and rivulets from the territory of Andrijevica, Beran and Bijelo Polje along its 83-kilometer course through Montenegro. At the time of the SFRY, huge pollution started already from Beran due to the release of poison from the sulfate pulp and paper factory, which was closed at the end of the last century. The alarming situation is now at Bijelo Polje and downstream. The international river of the Danube basin, then, passes through Serbia, and then into BiH, at the 220th kilometer it flows into the Drina.
In the Information on the state of the environment, published by the EPA in 2018, it is stated that the river below Bijelo Polje is "out of all prescribed classes" and "is not usable", under the influence of "pollution recorded through the content of phosphates, nitrites, TOC- and the ionic ratio Ca/Mg".
The bad situation was recently confirmed by a team of experts from the Faculty of Science and Mathematics (PMF) from Podgorica. A study of the ecosystems of the rivers Lim, Ljuboviđe and Bistrica, published at the end of January, shows that industrial and communal waters had the greatest impact on pollution, while poaching also contributed to the destruction of fish.
The study was initiated by the local government after the death of a large amount of fish due to the spill of waste water on September 2, 2019. Like numerous reports, this one is also in the reconnaissance phase.
On February 28, 2020, the police, in cooperation with the environmental, agricultural and water management inspection, after the expert examination, submitted a criminal complaint to the Basic State Prosecutor's Office (ODT) in Bijelo Polje against "Mesopromet" doo and the responsible person HF (33), as well as against of the company "Milka MDK" doo and manager M. Ć. (31).
"Mesopromet" did not want to comment on it for CIN-CG even after several attempts, and "Milka MDK" said that they did not feel responsible.
"It's an ongoing process of proof. We will try to prove that we are not responsible for the death of the fish", said the executive director of "Milka MDK" Ivan Žunić.
Two and a half months after this incident, another occurred, when a black spot was noticed in Lima, for which a criminal complaint was filed against an unknown person, and the investigation is ongoing.
THEY DESTROY THE RIVER FOR A LONG TIME AND DEDICATEDLY
Danilo Mrdak, ichthyologist professor at PMF and member of the team that worked on the Study, claims that the devastation of Lim "was dedicated and worked for a long time".
"Total carelessness surfaces only when dead fish start floating. Then people wonder what's going on, the local fishing community raises their voice, social networks heat up, and the media starts reporting. This is a reflection of decades of carelessness, in principle it is running water, so it will wash away. The river carries up to a certain point, and when there is no more room for all the waste and poison, we have this situation," said Mrdak for CIN-CG.
He points out that due to pollution, "trout have become so rare that they can be considered suffocated."
"Species that are more tolerant to pollution and reduced oxygen are multiplying, which supports the thesis that the structure of fish communities has changed. "The good thing is that these changes are reversible and once the situation improves, the fish that are now rare or absent will return," said Mrdak.
An indicator of pollution, he says, is the appearance of invertebrates known to science from the Oligochetae, Diptera and Nematoda groups, which develop in such an environment.
In the Analysis of Water Pollution in Lima conducted in 2015 and 2016, environmentalist Danijela Veličković found heavy metals, iron, copper and zinc in scobalj and klien. There were about 57,5 milligrams of iron per kilogram in the muscle tissue, which is above the limit value of the Montenegrin rulebook on the quality and content of heavy substances, mitotoxins and other toxins in food.
Veličković is also a member of the commission that worked on the Local Environmental Protection Plan of the Municipality of Bijelo Polje 2019-2023 (LEAP) and concluded that "Lim is the most polluted and neglected watercourse in the country.
The biggest polluters, she says, are cattle and chicken farms, slaughterhouses, households, factories for the exploitation of gravel and sand, printing houses and dairies.
"When large amounts of untreated municipal and industrial waste water are poured into rivers, as in our case, there is a significant disruption of the natural balance and pollution that is dangerous to the health of the population," says Veličković.
In the area of Beran last year, 42 unregulated construction and communal landfills were listed on the banks of the river, and there is no data on other types of waste. More than 230 are registered in the catalog of illegal landfills in Bijelo Polje, with all types of waste, except for medical waste.
PERMITS TO SPEAK
According to the data of the Water Administration, "Mesopromet", "Eko-meso" and "MI Burko" have temporary water permits for the discharge of technological wastewater into Lim. These Bijelo Polje companies are obliged to examine the quality and quantity of waste water. The others did not, so it is unknown what all goes into the river.
According to the inspection of the documentation that was provided to the CIN-CG journalist in the premises of the Water Administration, the water permit for "MI Burk" was issued, despite the unverified operation of the treatment plant, due to, as stated, inaccessible terrain. This is contrary to the Rulebook on Issuing Water Acts, because the Board's commissions should check the correctness of the facilities for all companies that have been issued a water permit.
The "Bistrica" water supply and sewage system in Bijelo Polje does not have a water permit for the discharge of waste water either - a city where, according to the last census, 46 thousand inhabitants live, while the sewage system for collecting and removing waste water is used by 16 thousand people, or 32,5 percent. In the report on the work of "Bistrica" for the year 2018, they show that the sewage network is 40 to 55 years old and is built from almost all known materials, steel, cast iron, PVC, polyethylene, zinc....
Director of "Bistrica" Mladen Bulatović told CIN-CG that "conditions must be created in order to implement the laws governing the water area". A wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) is needed, the start of construction of which was planned for 2019, but was postponed because there was no money. It is planned to cover the urban and industrial zone, i.e. the left bank of Lima, which is the equivalent of 20 thousand citizens.
In the LEAP, it is stated that "about 500 sanitary waste water discharge locations were identified through field inspection, and that due to the branches and vegetation on Lim and its tributaries, it is impossible to fully find every sewer pipe".
From 2015 to 2020, the water inspector issued 21 decisions for obtaining water permits. Four companies, whose names the Administration for Inspections refused to disclose, were fined five hundred euros each and given a deadline to obtain it. Three companies do not have it yet, so they were fined one thousand euros.
In the cadastre of potential polluters, derived from LEAP, it is stated that there are no water purification devices in the dairy "Milka MDK", two chicken and hen farms "Beganović", the printing house "Merkator" and "Pegaz", two wood processing companies "Brenta". ", doo "Selektor", "Bau Centar" and "Gradišta Komerc".
The CIN-CG journalist saw discharge pipes in front of companies and farms that do not have a water permit for the discharge of waste water.
Among them are two "Beganović" chicken farms in Bijelo Polje. Authorized representative and founder Senad Beganović refused to answer CIN-CG's question about how he plans to protect the river.
In addition to the car service and the facility for the technical inspection of "Wagen" vehicles, the journalist also noticed two exhaust pipes. Traces of black liquid were visible from one of them. The company's executive director, Refik Kasumović, claims that it was not dropped from the company's premises.
"We are not a classic car repair shop, and our waste water cannot significantly pollute Lim. "Both pipes are sewers, waste water from the car service goes into a pool that is emptied regularly by the utility company," Kasumović said. The Water and Sewerage Department confirmed for CIN-CG that they discharge waste water from that and all the pools they empty into the river.
Waste water and organic waste are located in front of the "Franca Oluja" farm on the land next to Lim. Mesopromet, whose cooperative farm this is, refused to answer CIN-CG's questions about it.
"We don't have waste water treatment facilities, nor will we build one, because there is no need. All our technological waste water is collected and taken away by the company for sanitary and environmental protection "Hemosan" from Bar", Zoran Loktionov, the owner of the printing house "Pegaz", claims for CIN-CG. "Hemosan" told CIN-CG, however, that they had nothing to do with the waste water from Pegasus, and that in a certain period of 2019, they removed packaging and paints.
Due to the spilling of red paint from the company "Pegaz" in the Lješnica tributary, and then in Lim on March 22, 2019, Loktionov paid a fine of 1.200 euros. The company claimed that it was a worker's mistake.
The director of "Milka MDK" Ivan Žunić said that the waste water from the dairy flows into the common sewer drain shaft and is thus purified.
"That's a problem that needs to be solved by the city drainage system to which we are connected. "We regularly pay for sewage, 50 percent of the water used," said Žunić. According to him, the dairy has had the same products for 40 years, they have never polluted the river, but they will still build purification devices, when they receive money from the European program for rural development IPARD, with 50 percent non-refundable support.
According to regulations derived from the Law on Water, "Milka MDK" should have a water permit for the discharge of waste water, and the inspection should punish those who do not have one.
The other seven companies from the Bjepolska Cadastre of Potential Pollutants, "Fishpond Kasumović", car wash "Damjanović", "Optikon Bistrica", JU "Opšta Bolnica", Dom zdravlja, butcher "Denko" and "Mesopromet" have purification devices, but Veličković and there has objections.
"They have certain devices, clarifiers, pits, shafts for the primary treatment of waste water, so the inspection should check the operation of those facilities," says Veličković.
A bad example is the hospital in Bijelo Polje, from which sanitary and fecal waters go to a sedimentation tank built in 1975 and reconstructed in 1999, so they are insufficiently purified and poured into Lim.
"Wastewater from the old people's home and one part of the settlement is connected to a sedimentation tank, and it is difficult to determine the precise amount of fecal and waste water", according to the Cadastre of Potential Pollutants.
The hospital told CIN-CG that everything is fine with the facility, and that its checks and tests "should be handled by other institutions."
As a positive example, Veličković singles out the car wash Damjanović, whose owner Vuk Damjanović brings good practice from Switzerland, where he lives. According to the available documents, this company uses the most modern methods of wastewater treatment.
"It is a separator of 2.000 liters volume, equipped with multiple filters, which completely clean the water and retain the dirt, designed in such a way that the environment is protected. We have owned the facility since its inception, we decided on it solely for the protection of Lim and biodiversity", said the executive director of the car wash, Mirko Damjanović, for CIN-CG.
Rita Bajraktarević, an environmentalist from Beran, points out that Lim is the most polluted in the territory of Bijelo Polje, because there is a greater number of pollutants. That city, unlike Beran, does not have a WWTP.
THEY ALSO POLLUTE THE NEIGHBORING COUNTRIES
Danijela Veličković also assesses that the problem is that Lim is "unknown from a systemic scientific and research point of view".
"In order to talk about the degree of endangerment, it is necessary to conduct other analyzes in addition to the basic physical and chemical parameters: river sediments, state of animal and plant life, soil on the bottom and shore, geomorphology of the riverbed, degree of endangerment," asserts Veličković.
Everything that is thrown or discharged in Bijelo Polje easily ends up in the Lim part of Serbia, which is why the authors of LEAP emphasize the danger of cross-border pollution in Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Vladimir Malešić, a member of the Ecological Society "Friends of Sopotnica" from Prijepolje, nevertheless says that "due to the great purifying power of the river", Lim in the territory of this municipality often belongs to class I and II, less often at the transition to class III.
"Each inflow of water carries away, but also brings new amounts of waste with which the banks are literally covered, and the trees are "decorated" with bags. It is obvious that huge amounts of garbage, in the part above Prijepolje, also come from Montenegro," said Malešić.
The European Commission (EC) assesses that the level of compliance of Montenegro with the European Union in the field of water management is still limited, and that climate change is the weakest link, biologist Jelena Marojević told CIN-CG.
"The EC states that waste water is still the biggest source of river pollution in Montenegro. In this sense, more work is expected to solve the problem, especially in the long-awaited process of creating management plans for the Adriatic and Danube basins. Montenegro should ensure the establishment of a program for monitoring water status. Only by fulfilling the requirements of the EU to which we have committed ourselves, along with the consistent application of the penal policy, changing the awareness, bad habits and ways of doing business of some economic entities, can we expect that the state and quality of the waters of our rivers will improve, and in this sense, Lim is no exception." , concluded Marojević.
The management plan for the Danube basin, to which Lim belongs, is in the draft and is expected to be completed by the Water Administration this year.
Long list of pollutants
The Agency for the Protection of Nature and the Environment warned through several pieces of information that "the cadastre of pollutant sources, as a basic instrument in the policy of adopting measures and plans to prevent and reduce pollution, does not yet exist, so it is necessary to work on its establishment as soon as possible."
The Municipality of Berane is preparing the Local Environmental Protection Plan 2019-2023, from which a cadastre of potential polluters of this municipality could be derived. From the available documents, as in Bijelo Polje, it is not possible to conclude about the causes of pollution.
Professor Mrdak points out that for waters of national importance, the water cadastre is much more important, which, according to the law, should be managed by the Water Administration.
"I know it doesn't exist yet, but that doesn't stop the municipality from making its own list of polluters," said Mrdak.
The Water Administration answered for CIN-CG that in October 2019, they started to prepare the water cadastre, but that the municipalities do not provide them with "all specific information".
"The municipality of Bijelo Polje submitted to this authority the Cadastre of potential polluters. Water supply and sewerage of Berane provided a list of legal and natural persons who may be polluters in the territory of the municipality of Berane", states the response of the Water Administration.
One inspector cannot do everything
The most famous environmental incident on Lima, besides the fish deaths, is the release of red liquid in July and August 2017. The water inspector filed two criminal charges against unknown persons, and the investigation is ongoing, announced the ODT in Bijelo Polje.
And in October 2018, a red liquid stained Lim near the facility of a local meat processor. A criminal report has been filed against an unknown person, which is also in the investigation phase at the ODT.
From 2015 to 2020, nine criminal charges were filed on the territory of Beran. In two cases, the defendants paid 300 euros each for the postponement of the municipal tax due to the application of the institute of deferred prosecution. Seven complaints against NGOs for the exploitation of gravel and sand are considered unfinished, and many are out of date. In the same period, three proceedings were initiated before the Court for Misdemeanors, in one of which a fine of two hundred euros was imposed, and two cases are still being investigated. The water inspector issued nine misdemeanor orders of two hundred euros each for the illegal exploitation of river silt.
All this is part of 520 inspection controls in five years, which were carried out in Lima by one inspector. He also issued 21 decisions related to the exploitation of river sediments, waste disposal, interventions in the river bed and removal of sewage pipes, but no one was punished, CIN-CG was told from the Directorate for Inspection Affairs.
The services in Bijelo Polje do not have collected data on how many times and who they fined for endangering Lim, while the communal police from Beran issued seven misdemeanor orders for illegal dumping of waste near the river, but avoided an answer about the perpetrators and the amount of the fines.
Almir Mekić, director of the NGO "Euromost" on whose initiative the competent services went to the field dozens of times, claims that reports are usually submitted when environmental incidents attract the attention of the public, and that irregularities are much more frequent and that controls should be more frequent.
Professor Mrdak emphasizes that "it is obvious that the sanctions did not help and that they were not enough, because the fish die-off would not have happened last summer, and Lim would not have had such a gloomy appearance".
He believes that more people should be involved in the monitoring of rivers of national importance in the north of Montenegro.
"There is a need for a complete reorganization of the water sector with delimitation of responsibilities, clarification of procedures and systematization of jobs. I know that there is no employed hydrologist in the Water Administration, and that there is only one water inspector for the entire north," said Mrdak.
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