A common problem that is encountered in numerous cities and municipalities where the “Clean Serbia” project is being implemented is the illegally built sewage system that was built by the locals themselves without the necessary permits and consent. Inexpertly performed works that were once carried out by the locals prevented the functioning of the sewage network, and very often the drains made in this way end up in the banks, rivers or next to the roads and streets, which endangers the health of the local population and local biodiversity, so environmental accidents are frequent.
Dubravska street in Ilićevo in Kragujevac is just one example of an illegally built sewage network by the locals themselves. This problem is currently being solved, and the city of Subotica during the previous years was actively involved in solving the problem of illegal connections and construction, giving citizens the opportunity to report the work done by a certain deadline.
Illegal connections with inappropriate pipe profiles, unprofessionally made joints, lack of manholes, are often the cause of pipe bursting, which also leads to the spilling of feces on the streets themselves, and often lead to cracking of the asphalt layer if it exists, which creates additional problems.
Illegal sewage networks are the result of an earlier period of intensive construction without permits and consent, and we should not forget the fact that such works are contrary to current laws and are strictly punishable. In order for someone to be legally connected to the water and sewer network, it is necessary first of all to have a built legal water and sewer network to which the facility can be connected, as well as for the facility to be connected to be legal.
Such a situation, where the citizens clearly need sewage infrastructure, and it has not been there for years, inevitably indicates the necessity of solving the problem of wastewater drainage and then its purification, which is the key goal of the “Clean Serbia” project. Citizens not only solve key problems in this way, but the works themselves are carried out in accordance with laws and valid regulations.
Another big problem is unresolved property legal relations between the owners themselves or in the relationship between local self-government and private owners. Numerous streets that local self-governments propose at the request of citizens for the construction of a sewage network are privately owned. Such situations often lead to work stoppages or delay the very beginning of works. Solving property legal relations is the task of local self-governments.
