Bosnia and Herzegovina produces more than one million tons of waste annually. This means that each resident pollutes the environment with an average of 350 kilograms of garbage. However, the disposal of that waste is a much bigger problem. A third of Bosnia and Herzegovina is not covered by organized waste removal at all, so it ends up in illegal landfills.
When rivers rise, they pick up waste from wild and official landfills along the coast and transport it along the entire riverbed. On the other hand, Bosnia and Herzegovina is the sixth country in Europe in terms of the amount of drinking water per capita, but at the same time it belongs to the category of countries with unsafe water. There is no system solution for these problems.
That is why one man decided to take matters into his own hands and protect our rivers and environment. Safet Kubat, environmental activist from Zenica and fighter for human rights, founded the Facebook group ” RIJEKE BIH – BUDI PROMJENA/RIVERS OF BIH – BE THE CHANGE” three years ago. One situation was the main trigger for establishing of the Facebook group.
We were mapping wild landfills in Zavidovići, when an elderly man came by us with a cart full of garbage. We look at him, he passes by the garbage container and 100 meters after, still carrying the garbage, along a forest path, and dumps the garbage in the forest. He comes back all happy. I ask him, what did you do? He says, my happiness has no end, what a relief I felt. I was taken aback. When I asked him if he knew what he had done to nature, to the forest, that he had polluted the water he drinks, he looked at me confused – Safet Kubat recalls for Local Works.
When he started the group in February 2020, Safet did not know it would grow into a movement with more than 60,000 members. He only knew what he wanted to achieve, which was to be a positive change and do what the authorities do not know or do not want to do. He was guided by that Gandhian philosophy – Be the change you want to see.
The slogan of the group was “TAKE A PHOTO – PUBLISH, TAKE A PHOTO – REPORT, TAKE A PHOTO – DO”. The principle was simple. If you see someone throwing trash, take a photo of it and post it on the group, then report it to the inspection, and then clean up the trash and post a photo of the location you cleaned.
We live in a world of social networks, a world of visibility. People are afraid of that negative visibility. On one occasion, I took a photo of a man who threw away waste, and he said that he would report himself and pay a fine, if only I did not publish that photo. I am not for shaming, but it’s important for people to know that they can be published on social media. That’s how we made the biggest change – explains Safet.
What was initially set as the goal of the group has already been fulfilled. Today in Bosnia and Herzegovina, thanks to a Facebook group, there are 60,000 eco-police officers who send evidence of pollution to inspections. At the beginning, that was the main problem, because communal inspectors did not react to the reports they received.
We had over 500 reports of illegal dumping of waste, poaching, river pollution, but the inspectors did not react. We had to teach them how to do their jobs. Now the situation is much better – says Safet.
UNESCO Champion of Peace
Safet graduated from the Institute for Digital Media a few years ago, and he focused the knowledge he gained on moderating the group, not only to attract as many members as possible, but also to ensure that it becomes safe for everyone. Especially from hate speech. That’s why he used to spend hours deleting comments and carefully selecting members. Fake profiles cannot join the group.
Social networks are full of hate speech. Often even the best projects are ruined if a negative impact is allowed. That is why I do not allow unnecessary arguments. I try to keep all stories in the spirit of positive changes. It can be a narrative for our entire space. The group itself is conceived in such a way that we are all Croats, Serbs and Bosniaks together. That is why comments that aim to divert attention from important topics are immediately deleted – explains Safet.
Hate speech on social networks is not only a problem here. That is why UNESCO launched the “SOCIAL MEDIA 4 PEACE” project, in which it recognized people who, using primarily digital tools, but also their own credibility, can lead to positive changes in society. One of such people is Safet, who was awarded the title of “Champion of Peace”, that is, he was appointed as the UNESCO ambassador.
Ecology erases borders
Because of Safet’s dedicated work, the group has long since outgrown digital activism and spilled over into the physical space. So far, 3,500 cleaning actions have been organized throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina. 200,000 trees were planted, over 200,000 fish were released into rivers and streams. More than 20,000 people participated in the actions on the ground. When the action “Let’s clean a city in a day” was organized in Zenica two years ago, more than 850 activists collected over 30 tons of garbage.
When I post a call to action, I am ready to participate and clean by myself, with family, friends, but people always respond. We had an action in Stolac last year. The call was announced on Friday, on Sunday around 40 of us cleaned the whole city – Safet proudly points out.
Today, a large number of actions are self-organized and this is the greatest success. Group members only send photos of the cleaned area to Safet. All this work is voluntary. Citizens finance the actions themselves, and the group itself does not even have its own premises. All activities take place online.
Lack of systemic solutions
Safet is pleased that, despite this, they have reduced or completely removed garbage in many locations. However, the problem is the lack of systemic solutions. In some cities, such as Zavidovići, they managed to increase the coverage of waste removal from 60 to 100 percent with cooperation with local authorities. Zenica is currently at 95 percent. This growth is followed by the entire canton. In Zavidovići, they helped to get a semi-automatic reloading press, so 1,500 BAM are saved per day just on garbage collection.
Now we have gone one step further, to distribute two bins to the population for the selective separation of dry and wet waste. In essence, we are trying to teach people that waste is a resource, and not garbage, as it is generally treated in our country – says Safet.
Everything would go much easier if all local communities and institutions followed the example of Zavidovići. Unfortunately, that is not the case. Until we have 100 percent coverage of waste removal and until that coverage is followed by the engagement of municipal inspectors, we will have garbage in the rivers, on the streets and in illegal dumps.
Despite this, Safet is not satisfied with what he and the group have achieved so far.
One of the more important changes is that ecology has been brought into the mainstream. We have changed the perception that ecology is a problem for the elite. That is no longer the case, ecology is the problem of people with empty stomachs and if there was no war in Ukraine, this topic would be even more prevalent – Safet emphasizes.
The group will not stop its activities. In addition to spontaneous actions, two large projects are planned for this year. For the end of August, an action has already been announced in Zavidovići “Let’s clean a city in one day”, where around 500 people are expected. An even more ambitious plan is to gather 10,000 people and clean the bed of the Bosna River from its source to its mouth. This action is planned for September, and Safet is convinced that it will also be realized.
I do not like to post pictures of garbage in the group. I want people to see Bosnia and Herzegovina as we see it, as one of the most beautiful countries in the world, a land of lakes, waterfalls, rivers, and that we lack the discipline to solve problems. That is why we do all this – concludes Safet.
Author: Vedada Sećerbajtarević
Photos: Rijeke Bosne i Hercegovine “Budi promjena”/ Rivers of Bosnia and Herzegovina “Be the change”
