At the public session of the Commission for Plans of the municipality of Boljevac, held on the occasion of considering objections to the Draft Spatial Plan, Iskra Krstić and Žaklina Živković from Polekol and the Right to Water initiative defended the rights of the people and nature of this region.
This plan, which should direct the development of the municipality in the coming decades, revealed a completely opposite picture – a vision of the devastation of natural resources for the sake of short-term profit. The alpine ski resort on Rtnja, five wind farms, dozens of dams and mini-hydroelectric power plants on all flows of the Crni Timok, intended for the protected reservoir Bogovina, were among the planned projects that would forever change the face of this region. Instead of agriculture, the displacement of the population, instead of drinking streams and the highest quality underground water, expensive barons. Clear felling of forests in the focus of biodiversity in Serbia, but also in Europe.
We knew that the implementation of such a plan would be devastating for Boljevac, its rivers, forests and communities, and that is why we submitted our objections and clearly said – this kind of development is not sustainable, it is destructive.
At the meeting, the Planning Commission heard most of our arguments and adopted many of the objections we raised. Thus, the alpine ski resort and the plan for mini-hydroelectric plants were removed from the Spatial Plan – which means that Rtanj and Crni Timok remain alive.
However, the Bogovin reservoir, which is carried over from plans from the last century, and accentuated due to the needs of the ZiJin mine, still remains in the document. This project would threaten the water supply of the entire area, and the Commission and representatives of the local self-government, unfortunately, admitted that they know very little about it. Professor of hydrogeology Zoran Stevanović, who also participated in the discussion, pointed to modern scientific research, which he brought to the commission in a printed edition. Despite this, they did not decide to remove Bogovina from the spatial plan.
During the discussion, Žaklina Živković emphasized that the entire plan relies on outdated state documents, such as the Spatial Plan of the Republic of Serbia, which was valid until 2020 and which does not take into account either climate change or the real needs of people. She requested the suspension of work on this spatial plan until (adequate) draft plans of a higher order are adopted and called on the municipal authorities to clearly declare themselves against projects that endanger the water supply of citizens.
Iskra Krstić pointed out that the country is slow in recognizing the urgency of adapting to the climate crisis in circumstances where average temperatures in Serbia are already 1.6-2.6 degrees Celsius higher than temperatures in the pre-industrial period. The Paris Agreement is dead, stated Krstić, and instead of thinking about how to ensure the security of water, food and biodiversity, the republican authorities are delaying and delaying plans and strategic documents like INEKP and promoting extensive mining. We appealed to the producers and the commission to actively participate in the preservation of natural resources at the critical moment.
We are satisfied that most of our objections have been adopted and that Rtanj, Crni Timok and the forests of this region have been at least partially defended, but the fight continues. As long as spatial plans incorporate the interests of mining companies instead of the interests of the people, we will continue to resist and advocate for policies that put water rights and natural resource conservation ahead of profit.
Serbia has to choose – whether it will be a country of drinking water, forests and fertile rivers, or a country of empty villages, tailings and dams. We choose life.
