Montenegro truly to become an ecological state, not only on paper

Preservation and improvement of the environment and rational use of space, as irreplaceable resources of a society, are the mission of the Ministry of Ecology, Spatial Planning and Urbanism, said Minister Ratko Mitrović.

The Minister, within the Government's video campaign "Potpisujem" on the first 100 days of work, said that the desire of the Ministry is for Montenegro to truly become an ecological state, and not only on paper.

In the first 100 days, as he said, burning environmental problems were solved and work was done on creating conditions for a healthy life for citizens.

"Thus, with urgent remediation measures, we protected the discharge of wastewater from the Maljevac landfill of the thermal power plant Pljevlja into Vezišnica and Ćehotina, and in that way prevented a possible recurrence of the ecological catastrophe. We have implemented a project of urgent temporary measures, that is, the installation of groynes, in order to prevent further erosion of the beach on Ada Bojana", said the Minister.

We have applied for the project that implies that German experts make a basic plan and a management plan for Salina, which, as he explained, will at the same time take care of how to fully preserve and improve it ecologically.

"We managed to ecologically save our watercourses from the construction of small-scale hydropower plants on more than ten watercourses and the further construction and devastation of our rivers was stopped. The process of exporting blasting grit waste and contaminated soil from the Bijela Shipyard was unlocked. 21 contracts are signed for important projects in the environmental sector that are implemented through IPA projects. We are fulfilling the obligations defined by the Final Criteria for Chapter 27 - Environment and Climate Change ", said Mitrović.

He said that space is the most important resource, and all preparations for the establishment of the state Institute for Spatial Planning and Urbanism have been completed.

The Minister stressed that they passed 73 decisions banning construction and carried out 283 inspections. He pointed out that the development and adoption of plans that were determined to have been made according to an illegal procedure, to have a harmful impact on the environment, or their development was started on the wrong methodological basis, has been suspended.

"Finally, we are here to smartly manage our natural resources and our space," Mitrović said.