At the cost of our lives, we will not allow the construction of a collector in Botun, the President of Zeta Municipality Mihailo Asanović said yesterday during a public forum, after the presentation of the Elaboration of the environmental impact assessment of the construction of that wastewater treatment plant.
"If we allow this, not only the pollution of Zeta, but also the entire basin of the Skadar Lake, and the Bolje Sestre water source await us," warned the president of SO Zeta Luka Krstović.
The Podgorica authorities planned the construction of a collector many years ago, and the only "optimal" location has always been the Zeta settlement of Botun - in the industrial zone of the former Podgorica Aluminum Plant (KAP). From the first mention that the plant could be built near their houses, the people of Botunija have been warning that they will not allow it.
Raised tones and protests were heard yesterday as well.
Asanović reiterated that position yesterday, emphasizing that "nowhere in the world is there a situation where a collector for one municipality is built on the territory of another, and that other municipality is not connected to the collector network".
He also said that during the presentation of the Elaborate, it was stated that the first house is 696 meters away.
"That is not true. I know that some of the locals live about a hundred meters from the former industrial zone that is intended to be used for the collector," he stressed.
The Elaborate states that the existing Podgorica wastewater treatment system is almost 40 years old and is critically overloaded, as well as that there are a large number of septic tanks.
"The project envisages the construction of a wastewater treatment and sludge incineration plant, with an area of 12,7 hectares, and a gross area of 6500 square meters. The maximum capacity of this facility is 61.000 cubic meters per day. The nearest house is 696 meters from the location, most of the land is owned by the Capital City, and the nearest cultural asset is the Dajbabe monastery. There are no protected natural resources nearby. It is planned that the water discharged into Morač will be of drinking water quality, while hazardous waste will be exported to countries that have a permit to collect such waste. The plant will also accept sludge from septic tanks. The feasibility study was made in 2016, the conceptual solution was made in 2021, the conceptual design was made in 2023, and the main design was made in 2024," said Nebojša Pokimica, the developer of the Elaborate, yesterday.
The President of the Zeta Municipal Assembly, Luka Krstović, warned that the demarcation process between Zeta and Podgorica has not yet been completed, and that someone is using this situation to place the collector of one municipality in another municipality.
"Zeta has experienced unprecedented levels of pollution in previous decades. We were told that the collector will be modeled after the collector plant in Istanbul. It was not difficult to find a lot of information on the Internet about the dark collector, and the Turkish media wrote about the fact that a river flowed next to the collector plant, which is now no longer visible on satellite images. Now only faeces flow down the river to the sea. If we allow the collector to be built there, such a situation awaits us in Zeta", said Krstović.
He said that "the previous administration of the capital, led by Ivan Vuković, announced after signing the contract in 2022, that the collector plant will be built according to the model of that plant in Istanbul".
"If we allow this, not only the pollution of the Zeta, but also the entire Skadar lake basin and the Bolje sestre water source await us," said Krstović.
"This document is a picture of how to write an elaboration when it needs to suit the client and not the profession", said the acting secretary of the Secretariat for Spatial Planning, Environmental Protection and Traffic in the Municipality of Zeta, Milan Stanović.
He said that there are many errors in the Elaborate, and one of them is that the census data from 2011 was used, including the information that part of the land belonged to the industrial zone and that it was not of an agricultural nature. This, he claims, is incorrect, because "there are corn crops 90 meters from there".
"In the relevant documentation, you say that the DV35KV Zagorič-Gornja Zeta transmission line is located in the KAP industrial zone, which will be moved at the expense of the investor. "Who gave the approval for the relocation of the transmission line so that we would know who to file a criminal complaint against, because in a letter dated January 19, it was submitted that we from the Municipality of Zeta do not agree with the relocation of the transmission line and that plant," asked Stanović.
Branka Knežević from the Secretariat for Spatial Planning and Sustainable Development in Podgorica said that she does not think that "that document is perfect" and that it can contain additional information, "which is the point of the public discussion, to prove what is missing".
"If there are documents that we did not have, which contain relevant information, they will be taken into account," she said and pointed out that the Elaborate complied with what was set by the rulebook, law and directives, Knežević said.
She said that the purpose of the report is not to abolish the project, that it was not done for the sake of order, and that it does not necessarily mean that it will get approval, because if it does not get approval, the project will not be done.
Knežević said that the relevant ministry looked at the locations that were previously proposed by citizens, but that even then "it was confirmed that the location in Botun is optimal".
Zeta resident Dalibor Kavarić pointed out that the project is against environmental standards and the Constitution of Montenegro.
Kavarić said that it was necessary to carry out assessments before creating the main project.
"I consider it wrong to do the main project first, and then adjust the Elaborate on environmental impact protection in that way," said this local.
He said that during the development of the project, the Aarhus Convention ratified by Montenegro was not respected, because according to that convention, the public, including local communities, must be involved in making decisions that may affect the environment, especially in phases when all options are open.
Kavarić said that this includes participation in the process of approving projects such as the construction of factories, landfills, hydropower plants, or other infrastructure projects that can affect ecosystems, as well as that the opinions of the public must be taken into account in the decision-making process.
Slavko Vukčević from Botun expressed dissatisfaction with the work of the Environmental Protection Agency, stating that it does not take into account the citizens of Botun and that the information from the report is unreliable. He particularly criticized the incorrect data on the distance of the houses and said that the citizens will resist, as they have been doing since 2008.
Vukčević pointed out that the citizens of Botun do not accept this location and demand its relocation.
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