Construction and expansion of Sarajevo bring new business opportunities every day, young couples seek for opportunities for favorable residential solutions in new construction, and the local government generates revenues at the expense of constructing new facilities.
In the past several months, Arijana Turković and Alisa Davidović have launched a number of initiatives regarding environmental protection and provision of conditions for improvement of the quality of living for the citizens of the Novi Grad Sarajevo Municipality. They are not the only ones. In the past several years there has been a number of initiatives in Sarajevo by citizens, informal groups and activist movements which deal with the “fight” for public space and change of the way in which the community takes advantage of what is considered to be joint in an urban environment.
Alisa Davidović, engineer of horticulture, recognized the issue of the lack of maintenance of park areas as one of the important issues in that sense and she launched the matter of revitalization of green spaces in the community.
“There are more different examples to start from. We have green areas at the Square of Solidarity in Alipašino polje, then in Brčanska on Otoka, Gradačačka in Čengić Vila. Wr have demanded from the Municipality to react and deliver to us the information on what they have done to resolve this issue”, Davidović said.
Investments needed for the complete reconstruction of one park area do not exceed the amount of 14,000 BAM, which is a projection in ideal scenarios, but it is not necessary that the investments amount to precisely 14,000 BAM in order to provide a space for youth and return the park to the people.
Alisa’s partner in these initiatives is Arijana Turković, an economist who worked with Alisa on the preparation of the projection, who talked to the citizens and worked on the design of new environment solutions in Novi Grad.
At the last session, the councilors Amela Topuz and Vernes Ćosić launched an initiative for the reconstruction of parks, upon the proposal by Alisa and Arijana. The initiative was accepted by the Municipal Council Novi Grad Sarajevo, thus the beginning of works and implementation of planned activities are expected in the coming months. As the new facilities keep appearing in Novi Grad, the “green policies” have won at least in one place. Alisa and Arijana are bringing parks back to Novi Grad, step by step.
(Source: novovrijeme.ba)
