Citizens of Canton Sarajevo are facing the issue of polluted air every winter. Their health is endangered, and the relevant authorities are noting that they are doing everything in their power to solve this issue.
The Assembly of Canton Sarajevo adopted the Cantonal Environmental Protection Plan for the five-year period in October this year, and one of the topics was the management of air quality. It was stated from the Ministry that a total of 97 million BAM was allocated for the Action Plan for the Protection of Air.
Zijada Krvavac, the Assistant Minister of Spatial Planning, Construction and Environmental Protection of CS stated that the air pollution in Canton Sarajevo started back in 2009 when the fall of material and economic standards led to increased prices of natural gas. Citizens as well as business entities massively abandoned the use of this energy source in that period.
When it comes to stimulating the use of natural gas, the Ministry of Physical Planning, Construction and Environmental Protection of CS allocated 501,000 BAM for subisidies to connections of residential buildings on the network of the PUC “Sarajevogas”.
However, it is concerning that, according to the latest information from the Federal Ministry of Transport, over 78,000 vehicles with excess emissions of gases were registered only in the first ten months of the implementation of the Ordinance on eco-testing, which means that these vehicles should not be involved in the traffic at all.
“Unfortunately, the eco-test will become eliminatory in 2020, which means that these vehicles will be declared as technically inoperative then. However, I personally think that this period should be a lot shorter, due to the negative consequences,” added Krvavac.
She also mentioned numerous projects that the ministry is currently implementing in cooperation with foreign organizations and countries, which are referring to the air quality. She noted the upgrade of the institutional, organizational and professional capacities for the implementation of the objectives from the Action Plan for air protection as crucial obligation. Krvavac also noted that they are conducting a lot of other activities, but more awareness is needed in BiH in general, as well as synergy, work in multiple sectors as well as financial investments for different projects.
(Source: A. B./Klix.ba)
