Half a year ago, in cooperation with several environmental organizations, MANS filed criminal charges against responsible persons, but they are yet to receive an answer from the State Prosecutor’s Office.
The European Union told Montenegro that it must stop depositing waste into the riverbed and on the banks of the Tara River, but the situation on the ground shows that not only the landfills were not removed, but they are doubled, according to the Network for Affirmation of NGO Sector (MANS).
“Last weekend, after six months, we again visited Tara’s construction site near Mateševo and saw that not only the situation has not been improved since last year, but it is much worse than what we noticed when we first visited the site”, Dejan Milovac, director of the MANS Investigative Centre told TV Vijesti.
In the resolution of the European Parliament of November 2018, it emphasized the need “to provide the public with timely and accurate information on the effects of the highway construction on the Tara River, as well as to cease all waste disposal activities and the alteration of river beds”.
Despite these recommendations, the footage provided by MANS show that the landfills are now doubled compared to October last year.
“China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC) company has even installed some processing plants for this stone. This is absolutely unacceptable,” Milovac said.
According to MANS, such situation on the river is a direct result of the fact that in the past six months the Chinese company CRBC, as well as the Ministry of Transport and Maritime Affairs as an investor, have not been held responsible.
“And there is, of course, the Ministry of Sustainable Development and Tourism, which had to react in order to make both the investors and contractors do something or protect Tara,” Milovac added.
Six months ago, in cooperation with several environmental organizations, MANS filed criminal charges against responsible persons, but they are yet to receive an answer from the State Prosecutor’s Office. Milovac believes that because no one has been punished for what was done at Tara, Chinese company and the ministries headed by Osman Nurković and Pavle Radulović “continue to act like this”.
At the end of October, MANS published the footage of this NGO’s Investigative Centre for the first time, stating that they showed “all proportions of devastation” of the Tara river bank along the Bar-Boljare highway.
Two weeks later, this NGO published footage indicating that hundreds of square meters of waste material from nearby sites were deposited on both banks of the River Tara. In mid-November, they announced that CRBC discharges wastewater from the construction site directly into the stream, and thus untreated into the Tara River.
The authorities denied all allegations, while on demands to make data on the works on the highway public, the Government and the competent institutions respond by saying that they were declared – secret.
Findings of the Administration for Inspection Affairs (AIA), from which MANS asked copies of documents related to the construction of a section of the highway are also a “business secret”. According to AIA, their disclosing would have more damage than the public’s interest in knowing.
