Around 300 km of sewage network and 4 wastewater treatment plants is the plan which will be realized by the end of this year within the „Clean Serbia“ Project. The Minister of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure says that the very „Clean Serbia“ Project is avant-garde and ambitious and therefore – was not easy to initiate.
„We are currently working on not on thirty locations but on the territory of 30 local self-governments constructing sewage infrastructure and collector facilities. When the Government is investing in more than 100 locations with the goal of completely changing the ecological landscape of the country, that is no small undertaking. We will have finished by the end of September around 300 km of sewage infrastrucutre on the territory of the entire country. We plan to comission 4 plants by the end of the year, and by the end of the next year more than 20 plants. Those are big tasks and this Government has made a huge shift in perception when it comes to environmental projects.“ Momirović stated.
He reminds that the implementation of environmental projects has already commenced and it the results are already clearly visible.
„ We have constructed one of the biggest plants in the country, a wastewater treatment plant in Kruševac, perhaps the most modern in Europe. We have built in Vranje. Now, we are working on 140 km of new sewage infrastrucutre and I have mixed feelings because we failed to promote that adequatly. Izgradili smo verovatno jedno od najvećih postrojenja u zemlji, postrojenje za prečišćavanje otpadnih voda u Kruševcu , možda najmodernije u Evropi. We have invested huge effots and amounts of money. The President of the Republic insisted on these projects, and we failed to adequatly promote them. On the contrary, we allowed some people, for whom we can now clearly see, when they publicly submitted their biographies, that they are semi-educated with more than questionable working experience, and that they are people who will work exclusively for financial interests and people who work for foreign interests, to vilify this kind of work. That needs to be a message to a new Government, we need to have more strength, we need to insist on finishing projects like these because these projects change the ecological landscape of our country. Both here near the river Kolubara and on the territory of Western Morava River and the Tisa River. We have to preserve our rivers so that our children can drink water from them. Look at how we have cleaned the river Pek, and there was a lot of serious pollution and filth there. We have improved the state of affairs. We have to finish these projects and continue forward despite the war in Europe and sactions, lack of gas, oil and electricity being the main topics, and despite all of that we are building roads, building factories and changing the landscape of Serbia in terms of environment and ecology. The projects must move forward and that will be the greatest legacy of this Government guided by Aleksandar Vučić“ Momirović stated while visiting the works within the “Clean Serbia” Project in Lajkovac.
Minister Momirović has especially emphasized that the development and implementation of environmental projects cannot be realized at the expense of industry and development of the country but must go hand-in-hand with them.
„We are working on design documentation for around 70 local self-governments and each has 4 or 5 locations. Some municipalities are more successful than others. Our plan is to invest several billion Euros and to completely change the image of Serbia, because these are the European standards. That is what we want for our citizens, European standards and that is what we have to provide. Without endangering the economy of Serbia at any point. We do not wish to endanger the mines or destroy the metal or chemical industry in order to work on ecology. No, we are doing it in such a way that industry needs to exist in order for the economy of this country to survive and to maintain the economic growth. Our citizens deserve that and that is where we have to succeed. In parallel with industry, we are investing in environmental projects“ Momirović explained.
Efforts to raise the environmental standards to that of Europe and developed countries is no small task because, as the Minister puts it, environment was not a topic for decades in Serbia.
„There is still so much to do and it is not easy to compensate decades of idleness in just a few years. Environment did not exist as a topic, and some projects which were implemented, were realized in utter failure. We have changed some things and we will change even more. Much was initiated, but as I have previously stated, we have not promoted everything enough. We wanted to construct kilometers of sewage, wastewater treatment plants, to preserve our rivers and that is exactly what we are doing. We have done a lot already, and the results are clearly visible, and others will add up those results“ says the Minister of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure.
