After the three girls, Ivana Čogurić, Jelena Jovićević and Bojana Kršikapa, and later joined by others, set out to clean the park forest of Trebjesa, on the other side of the city, another group of young enthusiasts has been cleaning the area of poplars near the Krupački lake for ten days.
While the first named their movement "Ecopatriotism", the others chose the name "Eco etiquette".
Everyone who walked to Krupac these days had one and the same comment - the area around the poplar has never been cleaner, but dozens of black bags full of garbage have been waiting for days to be taken away.
"We have a big problem with garbage removal. We went to Komunalno and the director told us that he would meet us but once, because this is Elektroprivreda's land. We hope that Elektroprivreda will contact us and that they will agree to remove this because they do not we can leave these many bags of collected garbage like this. We have nothing to take it away. The only thing we have to pay for is fuel, and nothing else," said Veljko Delibašić, one of those who have been cleaning the area around the poplar since March 31 .
Everything, he says, started spontaneously. They came for a walk through the poplars, saw a pile of garbage and decided, on the fly, to start the cleaning operation the very next day.
They bought bags, gloves and on the first day the four of them started buying waste. On the second day, the group was twice as large, and their enthusiasm grew day by day. As well as the amount of collected waste.
"We were literally scrambling for gloves, bags and fuel, but some people came forward and helped us. We have not regretted it for a single moment. Anyone who thinks healthy and wants to live in a healthy environment does not need any other motivation," he says. while showing the collected waste.
And there is everything there - pieces of paper, bags, plastic, but also tires, dead animals, juice and beer cans that are more than ten years old. Veljko points out that he is glad that some fellow citizens approach them and help in the action, that a few days ago they "crossed gloves" with members of the "Ecopatriotism" movement and together cleaned the area around the poplar. He also admits that there are still those who leave trash behind, even though they are greeted by a never-cleaner meadow.
These young people have no intention of putting away their gardening gloves so soon.
"When we finish Krupac, we will go to Poklonci, because there is a lot of garbage there too, since people often have barbecues. After that, we will probably go to Crvene dolovi, because that is the part where you walk, and there is a lot of garbage. For now, Krupac and Trebjesa are in the plan , and we'll see what happens next. When we made a video from the dam and saw how green and clean it was around the poplar, we were proud and it gave us even more strength to continue cleaning. We hope that an increasing number of fellow citizens will join us. when they see how beautiful it is when it's clean," says Mira Pejović.
When asked if they sometimes think that someone else, who is in charge of it, should clean up the garbage, she answers: "It's someone else's job, but it's our country."
Acting Director of the Municipal Enterprise Sava Lazarevic said that they had taken away the first contingent of garbage collected by the young people, as well as that he had informed them that the area around Krupački jezera was managed by Elektroprivreda and that they should contact them.
"The municipal utility came forward for the first time and solved the problem at its own expense. I told them then that we can't meet them every time because Komunalno has over 170 people, we are financed exclusively from our work, so we are not currently in a situation to meet such requests. Only in cooperation with other economic entities, with the local administration, we can come to a solution", said Lazarevic.
After the "Vijesti" letter, EPCG reacted and took away the waste
After "Vijesti" wrote a letter to EPCG asking if they would help to take away the accumulated garbage bags, Elektroprivreda replied that the waste would be taken away during the day.
They praised the contribution of young people in order to preserve and protect the environment and said that they are always ready to meet everyone who cares about the environment and works to raise the ecological awareness of citizens.
"EPCG regularly, continuously, maintains the areas around Lake Krupac and, in cooperation and at the invitation of civil society organizations, has participated in similar actions countless times. HPP 'Perućica' has concluded a contract with the utility company on the removal of waste from the closures and facilities of the power plant, however, the location where the poplars are, is not covered because there is no container site. We have appealed and promoted the formation of container sites in the localities where there are 'wild deoponies', because most of the waste is not stored properly, in the channel system comes to the shutters, and in the end it can endanger the production process of the power plant. One thing is certain, that in the future we will appeal and do everything in our power in order to preserve the environment", said EPCG.
In December of last year, Elektroprivreda signed a contract worth 190.000 euros with the Municipality of Nikšić, on the joint implementation of the project "Construction of Krupac Forest Park - reconstruction of green areas with construction of recreational facilities".
"An integral part is a provided place for waste disposal, and everything is in accordance with the Law on Environmental Protection," EPCG stated.
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