Our reporting that there is environmental pollution is not just a genuine complaint - it's a sign that we care. And that's not a little. Because only when we speak, we can change something
We are all familiar with that situation: a neighbor burns waste behind the house, the smoke suffocates the entire neighborhood. Or the local auto repair shop releases oil that drains right into the water mains. Or every week, debris from a nearby construction site is thrown into the stream. We look, get annoyed, close the windows, spread the laundry for the fifth time, but we don't know who to turn to. We ask ourselves: "To whom should I report this and is there any purpose?"
The good news is - there is someone. And you don't have to be silent. You have the right to react, because the law is on your side. The right to a healthy environment is guaranteed by the Constitution, and institutions have a duty to react when it is threatened.
First question: is it really "pollution"?
Pollution doesn't have to look spectacular, sensational, or come from big polluters. Not all pollution comes from a factory with a 30-meter-high chimney. Sometimes the biggest problems are in our immediate environment, say behind the neighbor's wall.
Pollution can be:
• smoke from a private yard,
• disposal of garbage in a place that is not a landfill,
• releasing oil, fuel or dirty water into the ground or a nearby stream,
• excessive noise from the workshop, cafe or garage,
• unpleasant odors from the barn, sewage system, septic tank.
If someone's behavior endangers your health, property, nature or general quality of life, it is not a "private matter". It becomes a problem for inspection and your full right to report it.
WHO IS AUTHORIZED TO RESPOND??
It all depends on what kind of problem it is, but in general, the authorities are:
• Communal inspection - for burning waste, noise, wild dumps, illegal activities in the settlement, waste water, neglected yards, etc.
• Ecological inspection (for environmental protection) - for more serious forms of pollution that have a wider impact on soil, watercourses, air, nature in general.
• Building inspection - when it comes to illegal construction that endangers the environment or disturbs the space.
• Sanitary inspection - if there are irregularities concerning public health, waste, rodents, unsanitary conditions.
• Veterinary inspection - when it comes to waste of animal origin, farms without control and poor hygienic conditions for animals.
Most of the local self-governments have established services for receiving applications from citizens. Applications can be submitted by phone, email, through the municipality's website, and more often through special applications for mobile phones. The report can be anonymous, meaning no ID is needed for someone to report that smoke is choking the street. Although not mandatory, it is useful to send a photo, the exact location, date and time when the pollution occurs. In this way, we make the job of the inspection easier and increase the chances that they will react quickly.
WHAT THE INSPECTION CAN DO?
When the inspector goes to the field and finds that there is an irregularity, he has several options:
• issuance of a decision on the elimination of irregularities, with a deadline in which the order must be carried out,
• prohibition of further action, for example, suspension of operation of the shop without a permit,
• sentencing (misdemeanor order, fine),
• in the case of more serious offenses, criminal proceedings can be initiated or a report submitted to other competent authorities.
Fines for pollution are stipulated by the Law on Environmental Protection and can be hundreds of thousands of dinars, and for legal entities significantly more. If the pollution is repeated or the ordered measure is ignored, the fines increase.
And what if no one reacts?
Unfortunately, it happens that citizens duly report, but the inspection does not respond or says that it is "not competent". In that case, the citizen can:
1. Request information about the procedure, because we have the right to know what was done after our report.
2. Contact the Protector of Citizens if you suspect that the institutions have neglected their duty.
3. Publicize the problem, publicly call out the local media, engage social media and exert public pressure to trigger a reaction.
4. Team up with others, because if multiple people report the same problem, it can hardly be ignored.
Why are people silent?
Many are afraid of "damaging relations" with their neighbors, especially in smaller communities. They are afraid of condemnation, gossip and even retaliation. Still, silence comes at a price, because then pollution becomes the rule, not the exception. Silence encourages those who pollute. When institutions do not receive applications, they get the impression that everything is fine and they stop with controls.
Conclusion: we should report, because we have the right to live without pollution.
Environmental protection is not a luxury, nor an exaggeration. It is a basic human right. No one has to put up with smoke, stench, noise, dirty streams or poisonous water. The law exists, but it cannot be enforced if there is silence.
Our reporting that there is environmental pollution is not just a genuine complaint - it's a sign that we care. And that's not a little. Because only when we speak, we can change something.
The author is a lawyer
Justice must never again depend on who is in power, because it applies to both "ours" and "theirs". The winners fought for it. Other affairs can wait, even if it is foreign policy - Europe is here, it will not run away
All this is the logical cause of Vučić's hysterical reaction to the mention of regulating the local media space. A mild attack on Prva and Informer televisions led to protests by "loyalists"
When "Because I say so" or "Because Freud says it differently" becomes a sufficient argument, it destroys in one fell swoop everything that has been worked on for several centuries: the importance of verification based on objective and rational parameters, respect for different points of view, a culture of dialogue, basic equality between people, replacing dogma with doubt and free research
The Higher Public Prosecutor's Office in Belgrade ordered the collection of information on reported abuses. We are looking for documentation from Partizan and the Football Association of Serbia, as well as checking whether the entire agreed amount has been paid to the club.
At the moment when the institutions of the Republic are destroyed, when Vučić's octopus is still alive, when people are disgusted by the injustice and the stench left behind by the Essenes regime, we have, as Machiavelli said, only civic virtue as the fuel with which we can return to the beginning
The four independent members of REM are an example of perseverance and civic responsibility. Rodoljub Šabić even, upon leaving the premises of REM, after the sentencing of the Informer, experienced that the Essenes insulted him, hit him with their hands and feet. But that too will soon be over
Vučić pardoned the batterers and Dijana Hrkalović. The election winners should abolish the sultan's power that allows one man to run afoul of the entire judicial system
Interview: Branko Stamenković, public prosecutor of the Supreme Public Prosecutor's Office
A black picture and the breakdown of the rule of law subscribeThe archive of the weekly Vreme includes all our digital editions, since the very beginning of our work. All issues can be downloaded in PDF format, by purchasing the digital edition, or you can read all available texts from the selected issue.
See all
