The people of Pljevlja are most responsible for the poor state of the environment in Pljevlja, claims the famous Pljevlja ecologist Vaso Knežević.
He says that for a long time he believed that the authorities in Podgorica were to blame for the poor state of the environment in the northernmost Montenegrin city, but after some time he realized that this was not the case.
“As someone who has been involved in environmental protection in Pljevlja, especially in the field of water protection for the last 15 years, I have to make certain observations that speak only about us, the people of Pljevlja, who are mostly responsible for the state of the environment in our municipality, as it is. At the beginning of my work, when I returned to my hometown after my studies, I was convinced that the poor state of the environment in Pljevlja, the poor standard of living of citizens, the lack of district heating, the lack of collectors and systems for wastewater treatment, the discharge of fecal sewage and industrial water into our waterways, the burning of coal in individual furnaces, unregulated water supply and atmospheric sewage, the destruction of nature and natural resources, poaching, the existence of illegal landfills, the conversion of rivers into collectors, and so on... were the fault of the people of Podgorica, i.e. the authorities concentrated in Podgorica. Over time, as I understood the situation and learned about the problems and causes of these problems, I realized that the people of Pljevlja and only them were to blame for all these problems. "People from Pljevlja," said Knežević.
This fact, he adds, was regularly confirmed to him by local officials and directors of business giants in Pljevlja.
"In the absence of self-initiative, powerlessness and for the sake of their functions, they remained silent and were unproductive, blaming others, and most of all Podgorica, for everything they did not do for the common good of this city. When I was young and naive, I believed in it, but over time I concluded that a Pljevljak is a Podgorican to a Pljevljak, that we are our own biggest "constraints". These constraints resulted mostly from decades of exploitative policy, which dictated everything and had primacy over all other sustainable economic directions," said the Pljevlja ecologist.
Because of all this, he claims, the people of Pljevlja have "stunted in terms of entrepreneurship."
"In Pljevlja, there are very few sensitive professions that could fight against decades of devastation of the area, because such professions had no place in Pljevlja."
He also cited two examples that best illustrate this.
"The first example is the Nature Park 'Upper reaches of the Ćehotina River', for which a Protection Study was prepared, a public debate was conducted, all opinions from state institutions were collected and approval was obtained from the relevant Ministry of Ecology in 2022. So everything that depended on state institutions, namely Podgorica, has been provided. All that remains is for us, the people of Pljevlja, to vote for the Nature Park in the local parliament. It was even on the agenda, and on the day of the Assembly, that item was withdrawn from the agenda, with the explanation 'that we need to look in more detail at how the protection of that area could negatively affect the future economic development of Pljevlja'," said Knežević.
Likewise, he adds, the process of protecting the City Park with the Biserka Canyon, which is also the most beautiful part of the city, has been halted.
"The conclusion is that decades of exploitative policy have led the people of Pljevlja to think paradoxically, instead of asking how decades of such economic development affect the environment," Knežević pointed out.
The second example, he said, has been current in recent years, and concerns the issue of the hatchery in the city park in Vodice.
"This is a unique hatchery for indigenous brown trout in Montenegro, for which representatives of relevant state institutions from Podgorica (PMF, Environmental Protection Agency, Ministry of Agriculture) believe that the hatchery is of state and public interest and that it should survive as such, and our people from Pljevlja are terminating the Agreement on the use of the fishpond premises to the Pljevlja Fishing Club due to the overriding public interest," said Knežević.
The ecologist believes that despite all the shortcomings, there is progress in environmental protection in Pljevlja.
"The progress is reflected in the improvement of energy efficiency of residential buildings in the city, the gradual elimination of coal as an energy source in individual housing, the Coal Mine finally making concrete moves regarding a just transition, the ecological reconstruction of the thermal power plant and the long-awaited district heating, the separation of fecal and atmospheric sewage in order to better function the fecal sewage treatment plant, and municipal services in the suburban area, which have resulted in fewer illegal landfills," said Knežević.
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