With the same demands, and for the third time, a group of Rožaje villagers who gravitate towards the decades-old Mostine landfill blocked the Rožaje - Špiljani road for 40 minutes, demanding the landfill's closure.
"The biggest problem is that the utility company Rožaje allows this garbage to be burned. It's a big smoke, it goes several kilometers downstream, down the Ibar. I live about four kilometers from here, so I can't, as a man living in the countryside, plant anything. In the last 10 years, over 10-12 people under the age of 60 died of lung cancer," says Elvis Murić, a resident of the village of Besnik in Rožaj.
"We invite the new Minister of Ecology to go out on the field, to see for himself what we are facing and to close this illegal waste disposal site as soon as possible. Otherwise, we are forced to organize a tent settlement in front of the Ministry of Ecology", adds a local Denis Murić village.
Environmental activists from several municipalities also supported the protest.
"There are eleven such temporary landfills in Montenegro and this issue should be seen as a state problem, the state must get involved in solving this problem," said Senad Pepić from the NGO Ekogard.
"We also have dead animals, the smell that spreads is terrible, here behind the wall of people we can hear that medical waste is thrown here and that there is a huge incidence of cancer, so first closure, then everything else", says Biško Milović from the NGO "Optimisti" Nikšić.
Local self-government representatives also attended the protest, demanding urgent intervention from the Government.
"Because in my opinion, this is one of the blackest ecological points in Montenegro. I think this is the time to react," said the President of the Rožaje Municipal Assembly, Almir Avdić.
"We are working to rehabilitate the landfill, to shut it down," said Nazim Daci, director of the Rožaje utility company.
The ruling Bosniak Party also supports the demands of the locals and adds that the best solution is the construction of the Regional Center for Waste Management, which has been talked about for a long time but does not yet exist.
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