Mujo Rekic, a resident of the village of Basici in the vicinity of Sanski Most, drives children to school with an excavator every day. The reason, he says, is that he cannot drive on the road that was destroyed due to coal mining in the immediate vicinity.
This village is located next to a surface mine where ore has been mined for eight years. Due to many years of ore exploitation, the first house in this village is 40 meters away from the mine itself.
12 families live in the village.
“Next to my house there is a 70-meter-deep chasm because of that digging, now they have also a landfill next to us,” noted Mujo Rekic.
In addition to Basici, ore mining is also carried out in six other villages in the vicinity of Sanski Most, in the northwest of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH).
The municipal council with the locals of the village and the mayor of Sanski Most requested the involvement of the cantonal Prosecutor’s Office, announcing the initiation of lawsuits against the company “Lager” from Posusje, which has been exploiting that coal since 2015.
The Lager company told that they “obey all laws and regulations.” Lager did not refer specifically to the current situation on the ground.
In the meantime, environmental associations also announce that they will be involved in testing the water quality in the Bliha river and its waterfall, which are in the immediate vicinity of the mine.
What do the locals say?
“We are afraid that they will start demolishing our houses, because they are getting closer to our houses, some houses have already started to crack due to work, they have cracked well,” said Senad Ceric, a resident of the village of Fajtovci, one of the seven villages where ore mining is ongoing.
What do the competent institutions say?
The Municipality of Sanski Most said that they are aware of irregularities in coal mining.
In the meantime, the mayor of the municipality held a meeting with the locals, after which the involvement of the Cantonal Prosecutor’s Office was requested, Radio Slobodna Evropa reports.
