The Bistrica-Crkvine aqueduct is formally rural, but as the municipality of Kolašin claims in that part, due to the number of users, the length of the network, the way it was built and decades of functioning without major problems, it deserves to be the subject of concern of the local administration, i.e. the company in charge of city water supply. plumbing. This system has been taken care of for decades by the Water Board in the Local Community (MZ), made up of locals. But, as they claim, soon they will not be able to continue what they have been doing since the mid-nineties of the last century.
According to the Chairman of the Board, Darko Medenica, there are no longer any physical or technical capacities to respond to the complex task of keeping the kilometers-long network in good condition, to which 60 households from several villages and hamlets of the Municipality of Crkvina, 270 weekend houses, two catering establishments are now connected. three public fountains...
Medenica reminds that the water supply was built in 1980 by the company "Veletgovina" for the needs of a restaurant in Crkvine and several households. Since then, the number of weekend houses and other buildings connected to the water supply network, which leads from the source at 1.800 meters above sea level, has been constantly increasing.
Recently, the construction of holiday facilities in that part of the municipality has intensified, reminds Medenica.
"In several mandates, we are trying to draw the attention of the local authorities to the water supply system, which is "worth its weight in gold". For a long time, its characteristics no longer belong to the villages, which usually include catchment and a few dozen households. Crkvine, Bistrica, Blaca, Lugovi, Pčinja, Ravna Gora are supplied with water from our system... Maintaining a long network requires a lot of work, even though the system is perfectly designed and built, and the water source's capacity so far manages to satisfy all the needs of users, even and when it comes to field irrigation. The water board can no longer do everything that has to be done for the water supply to function, first of all because of our age, because we are talking about mostly elderly people", explains Medenica.
Until the mid-nineties of the last century, says the President of the Board, the Crkvina - Bistrica water supply system, whose main route is 4,5 kilometers long with several kilometers of network leading to individual consumers, was taken care of by the local utility company. After that, with changes in regulations, all the burden fell on the backs of the Water Board, with sporadic financial assistance from the Ministry of Agriculture, thanks to which an additional pool was built.
However, the last financial aid from the Ministry for the maintenance of the water supply system, amounting to almost 9.000 euros, has been in the giro account for years. Medenica says that they keep that money in case of a major breakdown, while the locals repair less on their own. According to him, the Board complied with all regulations related to the management of rural waterworks, including the adoption of regulations. However, he says, they almost didn't do the water quality analysis because it costs 200 euros, so it requires additional involvement and costs, given that it is also the responsibility of those who take care of the water supply.
However, Medenica remembers that, a few years ago, a company did an informal analysis of water from several village and city water supply systems, and that, he claims, the water from the Crkvina-Bistrica water supply system was of better quality than the "city" water supply system.
"Simply, considering the current number of consumers and the fact that it will only increase with new construction, someone from the Municipality level should take care of that system. In addition to the fact that we from the Board can no longer worry about breakdowns, cleaning the pool and other interventions, the water source is not adequately protected, there is no water chlorination, there are not many other segments that guarantee its safety and correctness... We need a concrete answer as to whether there are any plans of local authorities to do so, because it is high time. We must not leave a system with so many consumers without responsible management," he explains.
According to what the director of the company Vodovod i kanalizacija Miloš Peković told "Vijesta", for now there are no plans to meet the requirements of the Ministry of Health of the Church, when it comes to managing the water supply. As he explains, the company he heads has nothing to do with the Crkvina-Bistrica water supply system.
"It is a rural water supply system, which does not belong to the city water supply network that we are responsible for. There are no concrete plans to change that situation, and even if there were, it should be up to the local government to decide," claims the Director of Water Supply and Sewerage.
Do they drink "technical" water in churches?
A few days ago, it was announced on the website of the Municipality of Kolašin, and the media reported, that the water from the source of the water supply in Crkvine is not suitable for drinking, because it is microbiologically defective, so it can only be used as a technical one.
Medenica says that this has caused a lot of concern among users of the system. In the announcement of the Municipality, there is no explanation of when the water sampling was ordered, for what purposes, or which institution did it.
"Over 50 people called me, upset by this explanation. It's no wonder considering that three public fountains next to the highway are also part of that system. I didn't know how to give them more information, nobody informed us about anything. We only read it on the website of the Municipality, so we don't know what kind of water we drink or when it has been defective", says the President of the Board.
"Vijesti" also unsuccessfully tried to find out the details of the water sampling in the Municipality. However, the residents of the Ministry of Health of Crkvina, they say, came across a document according to which the water was tested by the Department of Sanitary Microbiology of the Institute of Public Health at the end of January this year. They are in a dilemma, explains Medenica, whether the results of that analysis were published on the Municipality's website only now and what kind of water they were drinking all the time. They do not know whether there was a later water quality test, nor is it clear "the purpose of publishing the results of the tests carried out for almost half a year". But, says the President of the Board, this is all the more reason that the water supply system with over 300 users should be taken over by an officially competent company.
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