Belgraders Brave the Brown Danube
Belgrade | 05 June 2009 | By Mladen VuksanovicBut both the rivers and their banks are heavily polluted, and national and local governments are struggling to clean them up. The International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River notes that Belgrade discharges untreated waste water, which it says is a “source of significant organic and nutrient pollution.”
Further upstream, both agricultural and industrial contaminants are introduced into the water.
Meanwhile, the banks and shoreline are littered with plastic bottles and other detritus and whilst the organisation responsible for cleaning the banks claims to be doing its best, it says it is short of funding.
Belgraders love to stroll, cycle and rollerblade along the banks of the Sava and Danube rivers, but increasingly the rivers’ banks and green spaces alongside, are becoming clogged with rubbish.
Locals who use the river for leisure and recreation are becoming increasingly frustrated.
Milan, 69, has come to the river to fish almost every day since his retirement. “It’s very sad what you can see on the river bank. Plastic bottles, car tires, cookers. I think that [the authorities] should do more, and we as citizens should care about what we throw out.”
His concerns are echoed by Biljana, a young mother who walks her six-month-old son by the river bank. “It’s a shame what can be seen on our river banks… My friends from overseas, said they couldn’t believe what they saw.”
Charged with maintaining the cleanliness of the riverside environment is a city-owned organisation, Beograd Vode. Their spokesperson, Vladan Pavlovic, told Balkan Insight that they were doing their best but that they had limited resources. He also claimed that his workers were unable to access some areas which companies had fenced off. “It’s much better than it used to be, but there is still work to be done” Pavlovic said.
Gordana Brun of Skola za Opstanak, an environmental NGO, says that it is the responsibility of citizens, corporations and the local administration to take care of the waterway.
She is frustrated at the lack of progress. “Our country has good legislation but nobody to enforce it,” she said.
Unless concerted action is taken to manage the waterway, Belgraders look set to be spending a long summer amongst the plastic bottles and carelessly discarded packaging.
Friday, June 5, 2009
What should be a lovely walk from 25th May to Ada is instead a Mad Max horror.
Belgrade's greatest natural assets (the rivers) are currently one of its greatest shames.
JD