The fire at the Municipal Landfill in Brčko last weekend once again angered residents living in nearby settlements. Activists warn that this is an unresolved long-term problem that is a potential environmental bomb.
The demolition of the garbage collection tender in Bijeljina and the fire at the non-functioning city landfill in Brčko brought activists to their feet. For years, they have been warning about this environmental problem, which more than 10,000 residents of nearby settlements are directly facing.
Damjan Dundžić, president of the Ministry of Health of Ilićka, says that the stench was unbearable and that it certainly contained certain elements that are not safe for the population.
“If we have a potential ecological bomb that can explode because there are no vertical wells that would expel the gases outside that landfill, we think that is a priority,” warns Božidar Jović, president of UG Demos Brčko.
Those gathered around the Brčko Nature Lovers Club are implementing the project “Responsible waste management for a healthier and cleaner environment”.
“Through this project, we want to somehow start the process of separating and sorting waste during its disposal, which would lead to large, drastic reductions in the amount of waste brought to this landfill,” explains Damjan Dundžić, president of the Brčko Nature Lovers Club.
Some experts have been dealing with the problem of the City Landfill in Brčko since 1980, but the existing project of building a modern center for waste management was never realized.
“A new sanitary facility should be built that would carry out waste selection, which is the most important thing in everything, because we know that there are also vapors in the waste. If we carry out selection, very little remains that should be deposited in the end and disposed of properly within the framework of depositing”, says Suada Ćatović, a graduate biologist in environmental protection.
Competent institutions are not announcing this problem for now. If work is not started more urgently on its solution, activists are also announcing protests.
