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Read, Debate: Engage.
| topic: | Conservation |
|---|---|
| located: | Bosnia and Herzegovina |
| editor: | Katarina Panić |
Environmental activists in Bosnia registered a victory against what they called ‘investment urbanism’. A group of young people, part of the Čuvari Sane - a civil society organisation (CSO) meaning ‘Guardians of Sana River' - managed to prevent the construction of a gas station on the riverbank. The victory is especially impressive considering it was not a consequence of legal obstacles preventing the adoption of the gas station, but was solely won due to public opinion and activism.
“The fact that in the 21st century, our legislative allows building the gas station in the pedestrian area on the riverbank, some 40 meters from the water, speaks loudly about the quality of our laws,” Milan Sadžak from Čuvari Sane told FairPlanet.
It was a precondition for the construction of the project that the group of investors initiate and finance the spatial plan in this part of Prijedor city. Regarding the area of construction, none of the numerous institutions included in the new draft voiced concern, claiming that every single investment had to fulfill strict and specific conditions after the proposed framework.
However, environmental activists strictly opposed the project, exclaiming no pasarán - it shall not pass.
A week before the session of the local party regarding the disputed spatial plan, the activists announced they would publish the names of every single MPs who would vote in favour of the gas stations, exposing them to public condemnation.
“We will not succumb to pressure from investors,” the mayor of Prijedor, Dalibor Pavlović, said, addressing the parliament last week after he withdrew the spatial plan and announced that a new one would be made and financed by the city.
“It does not mean the gas station will not be in it again,” one MPs who campaigned for investors told FairPlanet, under the condition of anonymity.
“Fine. Then we will fight again and won’t stop,” Milan responded. He also recounted that the investors put pressure on their organisation as well.
“They tried to bribe us, then they threatened us, phoned us offerings the different benefits, and they tried to frighten us driving around us in their black armoured jeeps. We reported all of these cases to the police.” He described. “We all love our river. Some of us live right beside it. It is already deeply ruined, and we aim to protect it from further devastation. We are volunteers, and there is nothing we do that has a price. They can not buy us,” he concluded.
Photo by Uta Scholl
