Garbage lake: pollution from landfills on the Balkans’ waterways is polluted every winter

Priboj, Serbia – Trucks and construction machinery are parked at a river dam in southwestern Serbia, but not for construction work. Instead, huge cranes are used to clean up tons of junk at the foot of the power plant. Serbia and other Balkan countries are overwhelmed by communal waste after decades of neglect and the lack of efficient waste management policies in countries aspiring to join the European Union.

From the roads you can see burning rubbish dumps, plastic bags hanging from the trees and islands of rubbish floating in the region’s rivers. The problem is usually focused on winter, when inflated water spills over landfills and pushes garbage into hydroelectric dams.

This has been the case at the Potpec accumulation lake, near the power plant, after a period of rain and snow in December and early January. The surface of the lake was covered with a thick layer of debris ranging from plastics to rusty metal debris, tree trunks, and even, it seems, a coffin.

Garbage has been dragged downstream by the Lim River, which feeds the Potpec Dam. The Lim is born in neighboring Montenegro, passing through several municipalities and their waste sites, both in Montenegro and Serbia.

“Based on a recent study, we found that in these cities, in the five municipalities of Montenegro and three in Serbia, about 45,000 tons of waste are collected (per year),” said Predrag Saponjic, the systems manager. of hydroelectric power plants of the Lim river. . Looking at the lake strewn with rubbish, he added that “even if only a fraction of this waste ends up in the Lim River, we can do it.”

Balkan environmentalists have warned that because most landfills are not properly managed, they filter toxic materials into rivers, endangering ecosystems and wildlife.

Bosnia has also reported a build-up of rubbish that endangers the Drina River hydroelectric dam near the eastern city of Visegrad. The Lim is one of the tributaries of the Drina, which makes its waterways and garbage flows closely connected.

The two emerald-colored rivers – the Drina flows along the border between Serbia and Bosnia – during the summer are favored by adventurers and jams who enjoy the winding rivers and seemingly unspoilt nature.

Although the Balkan nations have been struggling to recover from a series of wars and crises in the 1990s, environmental problems are often the last for countries whose economies lag far behind the rest of the world. Europe and where public funds are vulnerable to widespread corruption.

Jugoslav Jovanovic, of Serbia’s state-owned Srbijavode, which is in charge of the country’s water system, subjected the waste problem to “our negligence and carelessness.” Landfills are too close to rivers and fill up instead of closing them over the years, he warned.

“If we are forced to do it year after year, it’s not really a solution,” he said of the clearing operation. “We have to find a common ground and solve it by joining forces.”

Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia have held meetings on the issue, but little has been done. Balkan countries are also facing other environmental emergencies, including dangerous levels of air pollution in many cities.

Experts predict that the cleaning of Lake Potpec will take a few weeks, depending on the weather. However, all the rubbish in the water will end up in a landfill in western Serbia.

Goran Rekovic, an activist in the nearby town of Priboj, said raising public awareness about pollution is a key goal, along with “institutional and systematic” solutions. They are also needed if Serbia and other Balkan countries want to move closer to EU membership.

“This is not an obligation of the European Union. We should not do this for them,” Rekovic said. “The reason we should take care of our environment is for our own future generations.”