The construction of subsection 4.4.1 of the Bar – Boljare highway, section Smokovac – Mateševo, has largely devastated the Tara River through negligent attitude of contractors and competent institutions, which was discovered by NGO MANS in October 2018. The contractor, China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC), disposes construction waste generated by drilling of tunnels on the banks of the Tara River, thus endangering its riverbed. On the other hand, the institutions allowed the supporting pillars of the bridges Tara 1 and Tara 2 to be placed in the same riverbed, as well as Mateševo loop.
Primarily, the precise route of the highway is defined by the Main Design, and the route of the subsection 4.4.1 by the Main Design for that subsection. Both documents were declared secret by the Ministry of Sustainable Development and Tourism, in accordance with the policy of non-transparency pursued by state institutions when it comes to the highway project.
Thus, until October 2018, the general public was not aware of the fact that a part of the highway will pass through the riverbed of the nationally and internationally protected Tara River, let alone that it will be severely devastated for several years, which is duration of construction of the subsection 4.4.1 which gravitates towards Tara’s surroundings near Mateševo, the Municipality of Kolašin.
Because of all this, since the discovery of devastation of the river, NGO MANS has been trying to obtain data on the state of its environment by using the Law on Free Access to Information. Nevertheless, state institutions then begin an unprecedented practice of declaring information on the state of the environment a “business secret”, although the right to access information on the state of the environment is guaranteed by the Constitution of Montenegro. In addition, Montenegro has ratified the Aarhus Convention, which guarantees the absolute publicity of all information on the state of the environment.
To begin with, at least once a year, the Ministry of Transport and Maritime Affairs, in accordance with the Environmental Impact Assessment Study for the construction of the Bar – Boljare highway, was obliged to publish quarterly reports on quality testing of surface waters – Tara and Morača, that come into contact with the highway construction sites, which has not been done. These reports were obtained only after special requests for free access to information were sent to Monteput, which resulted in the public being informed that wastewater from the construction site often flows into the Tara River, and that water quality is therefore deteriorating. Even after this discovery, the Ministry of Transport did not proactively publish the mentioned reports, instead, they must be requested separately – from other institutions.
On the other hand, based on the Law on Free Access to Information, MANS requested from the Ministry of Sustainable Development and Tourism (MSDT) the Main Project of subsection 4.4.1, as well as the Report on its audit, in order to gain insight into how and why the engineers allowed the design of footbridges across the Tara riverbed. MSDT rejected the request, justifying it by the necessity of protecting the safety of the highway. However, in the mentioned decisions, MSDT left the possibility of providing an insight into the documentation, without photocopying or copying it, which would not contribute to understanding of this document and revealing who and why allowed the highway to pass through Tara, which contradicts the very principle of free access to information, which in theory encourages state institutions to proactively publish as much information as possible, and not to limit the number of persons who will have access to it. The possibility to access certain information/documents only by physical insight, without the possibility of its further distribution, does not represent free access to information.
Another institution, the Business Unit for the project management of construction of the Bar – Boljare highway of the company Monteput, in one decision refused to submit a number of documents related to the state of the environment of the Tara River:
- CRBC’s monthly reports on complaints by the local population, as provided for in the Impact Assessment Study
- CRBC’s reports regarding the construction of the subsection 4.4.1
- reports on the implementation of environmental protection measures on the Tara River – where works are being carried out on the construction of the subsection 4.4.1
- reports of Monteput – business unit for the highway, regarding the construction of the subsection 4.4.1
- reports of the consortium Ingerop – Geodata regarding the construction of subsection 4.4.1, which is hired in the project as the supervision/engineer
- a program containing mitigation measures of the impact on the Tara River during the construction of the subsection 4.4.1.
All these documents were requested due to increased public interest in the situation on Tara, especially in the context of what and how much consequences the works in the vicinity or in the river itself will leave on it. However, the institutions did not find it necessary for citizens to be informed about the state of the environment in one of the most important natural habitats. The bad practice of the institutions was then recognized by the European Parliament, which in its resolution on Montenegro, among other things, stresses “the need for timely and accurate information on the impact of the highway construction on the river Tara to be made available to a wide public“. However, even the reaction of the relevant international address did not contribute to increasing transparency.
Reports on the implementation of environmental protection measures on the Tara River were also withheld by the Directorate for Inspection Affairs, whose non-transparency was addressed in a special study. Thus, on several occasions and by violating the Law on Free Access to Information and the Law on Inspection Supervision, the umbrella inspection institution refused to submit the requested reports to MANS, which was already annulled by the Agency for Personal Data Protection and Free Access to Information.
The Directorate for Inspection Affairs refused to submit to MANS even the minutes made by the inspector of the Department for Water Inspection precisely at the initiative of NGO MANS, as part of the terrain visit near the construction site on Tara. As part of the response to the initiative for inspection supervision, MANS received information that the inspection visit had taken place, that works had been carried out in accordance with the main project, but not the inspector’s report – which could not be obtained through the Law on Free Access to Information.
In this way, MANS is prevented from accessing even the data on inspections that it itself initiated, which illustrates the policy of non-transparency pursued by the competent institutions, which continuously violate international conventions to which they are bound, and deprive their citizens of information on the state of the environment.
You can download a PDF of the full case study here.
