Some people see rivers either as a “free garbage disposal” that removes garbage and sewage, or as an “excellent source of income.”
Tomorrow, the Coalition for the protection of rivers of Bosnia and Herzegovina, on the occasion of the Earth Day, will organize a cleaning action of rivers throughout BiH.
Confirmed places (for now) where which citizens can join the action are: Višegrad, Fojnica, Banja Luka, Bijeljina, Kruščica, Vitez, Olovo.
Activist Robert Oroz said that everyone is invited to join this action.
“The actions are planned in the period from April 22 – 25, from Thursday to Sunday in small groups of people, respecting all epidemiological measures. The goal of the action is to once again show how much we care about our rivers, and send a clear message that we are not giving up on saving the rivers and hope that the positive changes that have been happening in this area lately will continue,” said Oroz for BUKA and added that it is very important to have as many actions as possible in order to make this message clearer and louder.
He adds that rivers in BiH are deteriorating from year to year.
“This is primarily because some people see them either as a “free garbage disposal” that removes garbage and sewage, or as an “excellent source of income”. There are also local powerful people who usurp river banks to build private buildings or garden cafes and restaurants, which inspections usually ignore. On the other hand, we have beautiful and untouched wild mountain rivers that are unique in the world and which are threatened with destruction due to the economic interests of individuals,” said Oroz.
Our interviewee says that some of our nature pearls have been irretrievably destroyed, and some of them are: Ugar, Bila, the upper course of the Vrbas, Lašva…
Two cleaning locations are planned in Banja Luka on Thursday, namely Banj Brdo/Šehitluci at 11 a.m. and Vrućica at 1 p.m.
