Photo: Marija JankovićProfessor at the Faculty of Technology and Metallurgy in Belgrade prof. Dr. Dragan Povrenović. As he says, Serbia first of all needs personnel analysis and a plan for the future, as well as raising citizens' awareness of personal responsibility
The problem of the sewage network is one of Serbia's weak points, and its solution has been waiting for years.
According to the latest available data from the annual report of the Environmental Protection Agency, slightly more than a third of households in Serbia are without sewerage. The highest percentage connected to sewage is in Belgrade, 89,1 percent, and the lowest in the region of Southern and Eastern Serbia, where every other household uses septic tanks.
According to research by the Vojvodina Research and Analytical Center (VOICE) waste water from more than half of the households is discharged into septic tanks, which are then, in most cases, pumped out by private individuals with their cisterns. Where they end up is mostly unknown.
The Minister of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure, Goran Vesić, announced in April the continuation of the project "Clean Serbia" worth 3,5 billion euros, which foresees the construction of a sewage network with a total length of 5.206.679 meters and 165 wastewater treatment plants at 77 locations, as well as rehabilitation, reconstruction, recultivation and construction of solid municipal waste management centers in Nis, Kragujevac, Kraljevo and Pančevo, wrote Novosti.
Cause-and-effect problem
Professor at the Faculty of Technology and Metallurgy in Belgrade prof. Dr. Dragan Povrenović.
Belgrade, home to more than two million inhabitants, does not have a wastewater treatment plant that flows into the Danube. In Serbia, only 20 percent of municipalities have municipal wastewater treatment plants, while other large urban centers besides the capital, Novi Sad and Niš, do not have them either.
"Since this is absolutely the problem of the entire country, then it must be viewed as a whole, the money invested in solving this problem belongs equally to every resident of Serbia, no matter where they live," says Prof. Dr. Povrenović.
The current amount of municipal waste water that is collected here is at the level of about 40 cubic meters per second, which corresponds to the average flow of the South Morava near Aleksinac.
"From this it is easy to conclude that the bigger cities on the banks of the Danube should be solved in the end, after we build treatment plants along all other threatened rivers, especially the Moravian basin, which is the lifeblood of the whole of Serbia. This shows that Belgrade is the last city in Serbia that should get a municipal waste water treatment plant, and Novi Sad the next to last. It is easy to conclude how much more endangered the Nišava near Nis is by waste water than the Danube near Novi Sad", explains prof. Dr. Povrenović.
Only a few percent of the total amount of wastewater is treated
Nit is necessary to keep in mind, says prof. Dr. Povrenović, the lack of professional staff in Serbia.
"For this reason, in the past, the construction of plants was abandoned, with the excuse that there are no funds, and what is even worse, there is not even enough professional staff to maintain these plants in working order. Since it is mainly about the biological treatment of wastewater, it is necessary to keep the entire system alive, so small mistakes can lead to unwanted effects and, in the end, the system stops working. In the early eighties, there was a wave of construction of various facilities throughout our country, but as soon as they were put into operation and when it was necessary to maintain them in operation, we were not able to do it, so we have many "monuments" that testify to our attitude towards to themselves, because we all paid for them and let them go to waste.
On the other hand, there was no positive pressure that would force all those responsible to deal with this problem in such a way that every invested dinar is taken care of. Only under pressure from the outside and our aspirations not to be at the back of European countries in this context, more is being said about this problem and attempts are being made to improve the situation. This is where we come to the point that even today it is said that a certain city 'gets' a wastewater treatment plant. Whenever something is obtained and not earned, then it is not preserved as it should be", says prof. Dr. Povrenović.
At this moment, as Prof. Dr. Povrenović, we have about 47 plants in some kind of function, but it is a particular problem that most of them have exceeded their amortization period and serious reconstruction or construction of new plants is needed. All in all, we didn't even touch almost 85 percent of the generated municipal wastewater.
"First of all, it is necessary to make a list of professional personnel who can deal with these problems and to oblige the 'decision makers' to first have professional analysis, on the basis of which they make decisions, because most of the time they have neither knowledge nor contact points with this matter. As an example, I will cite the case of a local self-government that duly spent state money for the purchase of certain, at that moment, modern equipment from abroad, brought it to the ice in its atar, and then asked for help to explain to them what they had bought? ! I'm not sure if they still use it today?!
The established mantra that we constantly need to 'get' something, and not to earn money, leads to the fact that decision-makers approach it lightly, choose solutions within the framework of other interests, and not the interests of the state, savings, efficiency and the common good."
Shortage of graduate technology engineers in the field of wastewater treatment
Serbia currently needs a basic personnel analysis and a plan for the future.
"Before anything else, it is necessary to restore the student scholarship model by local governments, which will have the obligation to work for a certain number of years, so that we have staff to manage the new facilities. Just to cover the well-known project 'Clean Serbia', which is financed by the Chinese, but not as a gift, but as something that we will have to return with interest, at least 300 graduate technology engineers in the field of wastewater treatment are needed, and we don't even have 30 graduated annually in the entire field of environmental protection engineering," says prof. Dr. Povrenović.
We must conserve water.
At the same time, the population must be aware that no one will come behind them and clean up, but everyone must do it behind themselves and allocate the necessary funds.
"We are simply waiting for someone else to do it for us." In order to prevent all this in the only possible way, the state should, in general, in solving the problem of water supply and waste water treatment, form its own public company, such as EPS, Post of Serbia, Ski Resorts of Serbia or someone else, which would have the task that at the level of the entire state, it makes professional decisions, makes plans and approves investments, according to the principle of respecting priorities, with maximum care that the entire system works efficiently and in a controlled manner. It is a question, first of all, of the safety of the citizens of Serbia, especially in the times to come, because Serbia is not rich in water and what we have we must preserve as much as possible", warns prof. Dr. Povrenović.
Z.S.
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