The Water Administration, or rather its inspection, issued a decision ordering the Public Utility Company "Lim" from Bijelo Polje to obtain conditions from the competent authority - the Water Administration, in accordance with the Water Law, before any further installation or use of a floating barrier, the so-called catenary, on the Lim River watercourse in the area of the Bijelo Polje municipality.
The Basic State Prosecutor's Office in Bijelo Polje previously filed a case regarding the installation of a chain link for waste collection in the village of Poda, which was interrupted on the first day after installation. The utility company "Lim" suspects that it has been stolen, which is why they filed a report with the Basic State Prosecutor's Office, which also received a report from the NGO "Euromost", which suspects that those responsible at the utility company misused European Union funds, which were allocated to them through a cross-border project they implemented with the utility company from Priboj.
Assistant Director of the Municipal Radenko Vujosevic said earlier that the claims of "Euromost" were not true, but that their intention was to test the catenary chains to check how they function at certain water levels.
The Municipal Department emphasized that by installing catenaries through a European project, they intended to stop floating waste, bearing in mind that out of about 40 thousand cubic meters of garbage annually, 40 percent sinks into the riverbed, 20 percent remains on the banks, and the rest goes into other waterways.
In the notification of measures taken by the water inspector Omar Basic, which the Water Administration submitted to the NGO “Euromost”, state “that they have prohibited the Public Utility Company “Lim” from carrying out works and activities related to the functioning of the floating barrier, catenary in the bed or coastal part of the Lim bed without previously obtaining water conditions”.
The NGO points out that this is yet another proof of how attempts are being made to illegally, without the necessary permits, disrupt the watercourse of the Lim River and how EU funds are being used for illegal activities and to the detriment of the environment and the Lim River.
"We expect the Basic State Prosecutor's Office, among other things, to investigate whether criminal acts were committed by those responsible in that company due to the illegal installation of chain links, without the necessary permits. We ask the Ministry of European Affairs and the Minister Maida Gorcevic, "whose commission checks the spending of European funds, whether funds obtained through cross-border cooperation can be used to the detriment of the environment, without the necessary permits, in violation of Montenegrin laws, and what they have done in this case," the NGO states.
The NGO "Euromost", as they stated, has also informed the EU delegation about the entire case, from which they expect them to investigate how "EU citizens' funds are being misused through various cross-border projects from which the north of Montenegro has no benefit except for the individuals who implement these projects, and where the money goes from them is well known to everyone, it seems that it is just not to the commissions, the Ministry of European Affairs".
During monitoring of the Lim River, “Euromost” filmed the town of Poda with a drone after learning that a catenary was being installed. The footage shows an abandoned catenary two kilometers down the Lim River from where it was planned to be installed, which was supposed to collect floating waste from Plav, Andrijevica and Berane.
The procurement of chainsaws was implemented through the IPA Cross-Border Cooperation Program project between Montenegro and Serbia, through which, in cooperation with the Lim Municipal Company and the Priboj Municipal Company, waste management capacities were provided in Polimlje, from the procurement of trucks and scales, through training for employees, to a promotional film and video surveillance.
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