Yesterday, after environmental activists from Albania submitted a video to Vijesti Television, which confirms that the construction of small hydropower plants in the Albanian part of Cijevna, started without the permission of the official Podgorica, and after 10 months of silence from the Montenegrin Government, is making great progress, the answer of the Ministry of Sustainable Development finally arrived.
"The Albanian side submitted documentation in the Albanian language, it was translated and sent to the Montenegrin Commission for cooperation in the field of water management with the Republic of Albania, which was formed by the Government of Montenegro. The commission, which was formed in order to solve this extremely sensitive issue, will consider this topic in dialogue with the Albanian side at the joint meeting planned for September 19.09.2019, XNUMX in Podgorica", TV News from MORT was informed.
In the Center for the Study of Birds, which almost a year ago was the first to inform the Montenegrin Government and the public that the construction of one of the 14 planned MHE had begun, they ask what the Montenegrin institutions have been doing all this time.
"The meeting of this commission, which deals with the construction of the hydropower plant, is being planned only now, which is almost unimaginable that after a year this topic has not come up at all, nor is it considered important. We are particularly concerned that they show a great lack of interest in solving this problem," she said. is Ksenija Medenica from CZIP.
On the other hand, MORT says that from the beginning they insisted on respecting international obligations and conventions.
"We remind you that MORT, as a responsible institution in charge, among other things, of protecting the natural resources of Montenegro, sent a letter to the Secretariat of the Convention on Environmental Impact Assessment in a Transboundary Context-Espoo on December 26.12.2018, XNUMX. With that letter, the Ministry informed the Secretariat of the intention of the Republic of Albania that the urban MHE on the Cijevna River, without sending a notification and the possibility of participating in the cross-border procedure. In the meantime, the Republic of Albania submitted the documentation, so further cooperation continued at the bilateral level."
The problem, however, is that the public does not know the essence, they point out in the civil sector.
"The first concrete information we received from MORT is that the documentation has arrived and that it has been translated. Unfortunately, this is not enough because we are not familiar with its content, and it has not been explained in any way whether anyone has carried out an analysis of the impact assessment on the living environment when it comes to projects for the construction of small HPPs on Cijevna. We have not found out the most basic information for this year - is it a total of 14 small HPPs or how many?", assessed Medenica.
They expect that information from the upcoming meeting, says Medenica, as well as a detailed analysis of the effects of the construction of all planned facilities, because as they claim, 14 small HPPs on a small watercourse can have morbid consequences in a protected area in Montenegro, since Cijevna has been declared a nature park. , and is also a candidate for the NATURA 2000 area.
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