The rehabilitation of the embankment on the Ulcinj Salt Lake, apart from its immeasurable importance for the recovery of the ecosystem, will also contribute to the fulfillment of obligations from Chapter 27 - the environment, said the Center for the Protection and Preservation of Birds (CZIP), reports PR Center.
Members of the working group for monitoring the implementation of activities related to the management of the Ulcinj salt pan defined by the Action Plan for meeting the final criteria for Chapter 27 - environment and climate change presented at the media conference the project for the rehabilitation of collapsed embankments at the salt pan.
The representative of CZIP, Ksenija Medenica, said that this is the most important and largest project for the Ulcinjska Solana Nature Park.
She reminded that since 2013, after the production of salt stopped, regular rehabilitation and maintenance of the dikes between the basins at the Ulcinj Saltworks had not been carried out and that many of them had collapsed under the influence of wind and waves.
He also states that there was a change in the hydrological regime, followed by ecological succession and additional physical degradation of the area.
"Years of carelessness and inadequate management of the area have led to alternating periods of floods and droughts at the Ulcinj salt pan, so that this protected area has been repeatedly brought to the brink of ecological disaster," said Medenica.
As she further clarified, the collapsed embankments led to large amounts of water being retained in the central part of the salt pan, that is, in Lakes 1 and 2 and Štojski 1 and 2, while the other basins remain dry for most of the year.
"On the one hand, the water in the lakes is too deep for the birds, and on the other hand, the dry basins that are becoming more and more overgrown with vegetation every day. So the implementation of the embankment rehabilitation project is the only way to re-establish the key ecological process, i.e. the flooding of the area with salt water. ", said Medenica.
According to her, the rehabilitation works are planned for the summer of 2023, while the preparatory works are already underway.
"The key measure that we are implementing right now is the redirection of seawater to Knete in order to provide sufficient amounts of fresh water and thus food for the birds. At the same time, we continued to pump water from the Lake," stated Medenica.
Because of that, as she said, the Ulcinj Saltworks will look a little different.
Medenica also pointed out that there is very little interest and commitment from decision makers in the municipality of Ulcinj regarding the future of the salt mine.
"Just a few months before the implementation of the most important project, the president of Ulcinj Omer Barjaktari and the president of Ulcinj-municipality assembly Ardijan Mavrić have no answer to our question when they will adopt the decision on the formation of a company that will manage the salt pan," she said.
Medenica assessed that in the municipality they do not have "enough respect for everything that this working group does, not even enough to deign to reply to our e-mail".
"I publicly call on the decision-makers in the municipality of Ulcinj, as well as Prime Minister Dritan Abazović, who often refers to good decisions that have contributed to this area, to deny me and show with actions that they really care about the salt pan. They don't have to explain why they don't respond to emails, that's enough is to send us a report on the progress in the process of forming the governing body, because it is their obligation that they have not been able to fulfill for four years," concluded Medenica.
Director of the Nature Protection Directorate, Ministry of Ecology, Spatial Planning and Urbanism, Tamara Brajović, said that the issue of the Ulcinj Saltworks is one of the eight benchmarks of the Action Plan for Chapter 27.
In order to inform the public, she pointed out that the preservation of the existing values and the improvement of the state of this Park is of special national importance for the reason that the effective implementation of protection measures and the improvement of the conservation status is one of the 8 final criteria in Chapter 27.
"Through continuous joint work, we managed to realize 60 percent of the activities, while the remaining activities will be realized in the coming period, which makes up the remaining 40 percent of the planned. Are there major challenges in the realization of the planned activities, especially in the part of the embankment rehabilitation project, but thanks to the project with the funds of the CZIP and our continuous joint work, we provided all the conditions to have the embankments repaired by the fall," Brajović pointed out.
He says that, based on the exceptional importance of preserving the value and improvement of the existing state of this protected area, as well as the need to provide a sustainable management structure, they will continue to actively deal with the Salt Lake and it will continue to be on the agenda of priority activities and future work.
The director of the National Parks of Montenegro (NPCG), Vladimir Martinović, said that he was proud of the team that invested efforts in preparing the area in Knetimaza for the supply of sea water.
"That process was not easy, but thanks to the effort and work, the Đerene pump is now fully functional and enables the pumping of seawater into the saltpan basin. It is also important to point out that in the next period, the rehabilitation of the benths, which are important in the complex process of water management, is planned regime," said Martinović.
He said that in the coming period, NPCG, in cooperation with numerous subjects, will continue to implement the planned activities with the aim of preserving both the most significant values of the five Montenegrin national parks and the Ulcinj Saltworks.
GIZ expert Goran Gugić said that the salt pan "gave a sign that it is high time to preserve that area".
"The most important thing at this moment is to ensure the key ecological process and with the activities planned by this project, everything will be solved," said Gugić.
According to him, 71 percent of the funds intended for the activity come from CZIP, and 25 percent from NPCG.
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