The informal citizen group “Stop Illegal Changes to the Spatial Plan in Mostar” held a protest on Saturday in the Medjine settlement, in the hilly area west of Mostar, against the start of new construction works on the construction of solar power plants near their homes.
“It’s about the further expansion of solar farms above our settlement,” said Armin Dubljevic, a representative of the residents of the Medjine settlement.
“We came here to say that our lives are endangered.”
Residents claim that an Environmental Impact Assessment Study was conducted in 2010, which stated that this was a sloped area where the installation of solar panels was not recommended. They allege that the authorities are ignoring this, as well as unlawfully converting agricultural land into construction land, and selling state-owned land to tycoons, in violation of the law on the prohibition of disposing of state-owned land enacted by the High Representative.
“As a result, they fear that due to new rains, floods and landslides will occur, directly endangering their homes,” stated the informal citizen group “Stop Illegal Changes to the Spatial Plan in Mostar”.
The Mayor of Mostar, Mario Kordic, recently, when asked about the residents’ opposition to the construction of electro-energy facilities in the mentioned areas, stated that the Spatial Plan was adopted in 2012.
“At that time, those locations were defined quite broadly. It was not known how much capacity there was, it was not known when it would be built, if it would be built, so it all went quite smoothly,” Kordic claimed.
He believes that the residents’ fear is more “a product of poor communication of those decisions from 2012”, and “that it is a good thing that Mostar has the opportunity to be a leader in the entire region in the production of energy from renewable sources”, Slobodna Evropa reports.
E.Dz.
