(Podgorica, 22 May 2012) – Our lives are tied to space and time. The better we manage the space that belongs to us – the planet, the state, the city and homes we live in – the better it will be for all. Can we manage something that we have no say over? No. Decision-making is the first step. We are responsible for the decisions made about the spaces that we belong to and that belong to us. This is the responsibility of every citizen.
If we find out that there is any spot in Montenegro that with the adoption of an urban plan usurps the rights of citizens to decide, than we know this is precisely the spot that we must fight for. Regardless of whether we live in Pljevlja or Herceg Novi. In Herceg Novi we must protect Pljevlja from pollution. In Pljevlja we must prevent further damage that can be caused by the mistaken privatization of hotels in Herceg Novi.
What to say then about the electrical distribution system in the country? It’s obvious to all of us citizens by now that the government is ignoring us while making decisions about spaces that belong to all of us and the will affect our lives and futures. As if we didn’t exist. Let us consider the decades of our own investments in the electrical system of this country, starting with the self-donations, the payments made to meet electricity costs, and other means of financing that in the end were all paid by citizens. Who was allowed to in all our names sell nearly half of the Electric Power Company of Montenegro (EPCG) and is now considering selling more than half of the company?
The entire electrical system is part of our spaces. The sale of part of this system is also a sale of this space and its consumers. Of course, that’s not all. The electrical system is still being built and expanded. New territories are being sold, and with it are being created new fates for the settlements and people in its way.
An obvious example was the initial plan for the “multipurpose accumulation on the Moraca.” Later amendments and additions, a nice hand, offered more reasonable variations: slightly less profits for the concession holder with slightly less damage to the environment, and perhaps a little less danger for the residents of Podgorica and the Zeta and Bjelopavlici plains. The flood of December 2010 is worth observing as part of the probably scenario determining a shift in the hydrological situation and the future of these spaces.
It is impossible to separate the energy system from the country’s overall hydrological system and then present it as a “technological system” for sale. Such systems are an inseparable part of the spaces that they occupy, which are also inseparable from our own lives and fortunes.
Jelisava Kalezic
Member of the Citizens’ Front
Prof. University of Montenegro
