The municipal police stopped the work on digging a so-called drainage channel for the needs of one of the hotels in the Kolašin settlement Breza.
The digging of the canal was done right next to one of the lagoons, where the Kolasin sewage system ends, a few tens of meters from Tara.
According to the residents of that settlement, during the works, the edge of the lagoon was breached and its contents began to flow.
“The machine damaged the edge of the lagoon and the contents began to leak out. When they saw what they had done, the machine started to fill up the place, so luckily there was no damage. I called the Municipal Police, in order to prevent further work and endangering Tara. Everything is done on the 'commune', that is, the municipal plot", said one of the locals.
They also told "Vijesti" that there was, as they say, minimal damage at the hotel construction site. However, as they claim, they reacted immediately and buried the damage with earth. On the ground yesterday, it was not visible that the contents of the lagoon had moved towards the river, and the digging of the canal was stopped fifteen meters from Tara.
"It turned out that the land is specific, so we will wait for the pipes and continue the work, which we stopped even before the arrival of the Communal Police. "Two drops" flowed out of the lagoon, we immediately repaired and repaired the damage. The works are carried out in accordance with the regulations and all necessary permits, based on the contract with the Municipality of Kolašin. The drainage canal will serve to drain the underground water that floods the building under construction in Tar during autumn and winter. These are the underground flows of that river, so there is no question of endangering the environment or the river," they told "Vijesta" at the construction site of the "Montis Mountain" hotel.
They explain that they are working according to the revised project, and the channel will allegedly also be used to drain stormwater from the future road in that part of the city.
According to what they told "Vijesta" in the local administration, the works are being carried out, according to the contract. It is about work that falls under the communal equipment of construction land. The law, they remind, allows the investor to carry out these works, in exchange for exemption from part of the fee for communal equipment of the construction land.
The lagoons on Breza were planned as a temporary solution, pending the construction of a wastewater treatment plant (WWTP), but they have been in use for more than 20 years. In addition to the one on the right side of which a channel has been dug, there is also an overflow. The entire city's fecal sewage ends up in the lagoons, and in the official documentation it was stated that they can endanger the river.
In the Environmental Impact Assessment Elaborate, which is part of the procedures for the WWTP project, it was stated that "they do not function properly because they are not lined, and the soil is permeable enough that all the waste water discharged into Lagoon 1 sinks into the ground."
"The outlet from Lagoon 1 to Lagoon 2 is at such a level that waste water never reaches Lagoon 2. The lagoon that is currently in operation has a 30 to 60 centimeter layer of sludge at the bottom. Leaking water from the bottom of the lagoon creates the possibility of potential contamination of the Tara River, which, as the final recipient of waste water, is only about 25 meters away from the lagoon," the document stated.
The hotel, for the needs of which a drainage channel is dug, is being built in the immediate vicinity of the lagoon on a private plot. Several outbuildings, which serve as offices, are on the very edge of the overflow lagoon.
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