And this year, at the beginning of the swimming season, numerous tenants of the beaches in Boka again poured thousands of cubic meters of sand from Morača or local quarries onto the beaches that Morsko dol had leased to them.
Dump trucks and excavators worked most often at night or in the early morning hours, during rainy days, which were busy in the past months, and during holidays when there are no local and state inspections on duty.
The Nature Protection Agency of Montenegro (EPA) claims that it is not aware of the negative views of science and professionals from the Institute of Marine Biology for the already common work of "feeding beaches" with thousands of cubic meters of sand before the summer season. In addition, the Ministry of Ecology, Spatial Planning and Urbanism (MEPPU), led by Minister Ana Novaković Đurović, whose URA party is supposedly the party of the Greens, is of the official position that such and similar activities in which the coast is drastically changed and all the living things on the coast are destroyed, are not something that would require the previous mandatory preparation of an environmental impact assessment report.
This is a summary of how the state treats its greatest natural and economic asset, the sea and the seashore, which in recent years are increasingly victims of "development plans" of elite and excessive nautical tourism, i.e. the greed of tenants and users of bathing facilities to fill up the sea and add more square meters of people, but also territories for "economic valorization" in the form of installing new beach furniture, which is increasingly expensive to rent.
All of the above derives from the answers that "Vijesti" received from the EPA after almost a month of waiting to the question about the relationship and attitudes of the Agency, which, at least on paper, is the first line of defense of nature against the greed and recklessness of man, regarding pre-season "beach nourishment" and sea burial.
JP Morsko dobro, which was asked the same questions about the brutal filling of the sea by their tenants of the swimming pool, has been refusing to answer the questions of "Vijesti" for a long time, so this time, too, the opportunity for the general public to become familiar with the state company's attitude towards the long-standing problem has been missed. which in Boka Kotorska has long since taken on the characteristics and dimensions of true ecocide.
In previous years, Morski Dobr claimed that their tenants must obtain formal consent from the EPA before such activities, but they never terminated the lease agreements with any of their users who resorted to such unauthorized practices. And only Morsko dobro previously carried out pre-season filling of beaches in Boka that were not leased, for which last year that company allocated 50.000 euros. Such a sum was foreseen for the same purpose in the plan for the use of funds of the Maritime Dobr for 2023, but it was canceled by one of the three changes that document underwent in the meantime due to the need of the Maritime Dobr to provide as much money as possible for the purchase of ships for the Kamenari-Lepetane ferry line. .
All the locals and people "from the sea" who know what this practice, which is unacceptable in most of the civilized world, means for the destruction of the marine coastal ecosystem, have only to complain for the umpteenth time on social networks, and to the scientists of the only Montenegrin institution that systematically deals with sea and knows the most about its living world - the Kotor Institute for Marine Biology of the University of Montenegro, that they only shake their heads in disappointment and wonder.
The EPA indirectly confirmed to "Vijesta" that the agency did not issue any consent for the filling of beaches in Boka this year, but the reason for this was not its protective attitude towards nature, but the interpretation of the MEPPU, that such operations are not subject to the legal obligation to produce impact studies. to the environment.
"From JP Morsko, the agency is well aware of the need to replenish bathing areas in the area of Boka Kotorska, due to the fact that part of the sand is carried away by water during the winter months, and in this way part of the territory of Montenegro is lost. In order not to go beyond the domain of its competences, and with the aim of solving the above-mentioned situation, the Agency turned to the competent Ministry for interpretation regarding whether the provision from list II, Regulation on projects for which an environmental impact assessment is carried out, item "Activities in to the marine environment that may have an impact on the marine ecosystem, coastal works to combat erosion and works on the sea coast that, through construction, change the appearance of the coast (dykes, piers, harbor embankments and other defense facilities, excluding activities for the maintenance and reconstruction of such facilities )", related to beach replenishment activities. MEPPU pointed out to us that the Law on Impact Assessment defines the competent authorities for the implementation of the environmental impact assessment procedure, whereby the agency is responsible for this at the central level, while the local administration authorities for environmental protection are responsible at the local level. Furthermore, the answer pointed out that in this particular situation it is a project that is on list II since 2007 and that it does not represent a new activity in the context of the implementation of the environmental impact assessment procedure, so that in this case too it is necessary to approach the current practice analogously for the same or similar projects", the EPA told "Vijesta".
Because the EPA and MEPPU believe that thousands of cubic meters of sand are "fed" the coast of Boka every year and thus form artificial beaches in places where they never existed, or are spreading beyond recognition, at the expense of the sea, at the expense of some of the rare natural pebble beaches of Boka , does not belong to the domain of activities that threaten nature to the extent that studies should be done for them and formal consent is given, beach tenants are literally going wild.
When asked why the EPA, if it had not already given formal approvals for filling, did not even respond publicly to prevent or reduce such environmentally harmful behavior of the tenants and JP Morsko dobro as the manager, the EPA replied that it was not within their jurisdiction.
"Also, the Agency does not have a control mechanism, but it is under the jurisdiction of the Administration for Inspection Affairs and the municipal Municipal Inspection, on the territory of which the swimming pools are located," said the EPA.
When asked what the EPA serves when it is silent for years or approves such a harmful practice for the environment, especially considering the opinion of experts from the Institute of Marine Biology from Kotor (IBMK), who are expressly against the filling of the sea, the expansion of existing or the formation of new sandy and of pebble beaches in Boka where they never existed before or at least not to the extent they are today, the EPA replied that they are not hiding anything or keeping silent.
"Far from the fact that we want to hide, keep silent, or push anything under the carpet, but that there is an opinion of the Institute, where you state that they are expressly against the mentioned phenomena, we learned from you for the first time. The Institute has never addressed us on this occasion, nor has it asked for the opinion of the Agency in the case of sea filling, expansion of existing or formation of new sand and gravel beaches in Boka", claim the EPA, emphasizing that the Agency is very transparent and that the EPA "despite that it lacks personnel capacity, it uses all its mechanisms in accordance with the Law to prevent and protect nature in Montenegro".
They state that 29 environmental damage assessment cases are currently being handled in the Agency and that in connection with this, they have submitted a large number of criminal reports to the authorities. They emphasize that in the previous period, 2015-2020. In XNUMX, only two environmental damage assessment cases were conducted in the EPA.
"This proves that we are not an institution that "keeps silent or approves such a harmful practice", say the EPA.
Not a single stone should be thrown into the sea
For years, the Institute of Marine Biology has been warning that the geomorphology of Boka does not foresee filling the coast with thousands of cubic meters of sand for "seasonal feeding" of the beaches, and that the changes occurring in the coastal area are extremely harmful to the flora and fauna of this area.
"Thousands of cubic meters of sand and gravel are dumped on the beaches every year, and the coast of Boka is such that it is natural for rocky shores and pontoons to be preserved," warns Dr. Aleksandar Joksimović, director of the Institute of Marine Biology.
"Traditional forms are something that should be preserved and that have their own beauty, such as ponte, rocky beaches... In Boka, there is a saying that the old always repeated to the younger: "Don't throw a stone into the sea!", Joksimović told local media last year.
He emphasizes that the filling of beaches endangers important natural processes that take place in the coastal area.
"What happens when something gets buried? In that littoral part, in the zone of sea waves, there is life and certain organisms, and after a long time sessile organisms develop that cannot move. When you dump sand on them, certain species will escape, but certain species won't, and that sandbank becomes biologically dead. If you leave a stone pontoon, organisms will find a habitat on it. There is an elaboration and several studies that deal with this problem, and their harmonization and behavior in accordance with it could represent a systemic solution. This is a biological attitude, and everyone has their own interests, but we should sit down together. The Institute issues an expert opinion, which is a recommendation, but not an obligation for tenants or investors. So far, not a single tenant of the beaches has approached us for an opinion," said Joksimović.
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