Between Disaster and Environmental Protection, Vinca Landfill Fire, EUR 3 Billion for “Clean Serbia” Project – 2021 Retrospective, Investments in Ecology

Last year, ecology topics had a prominent place in the titles at eKapija. The year 2021 was marked by incidents which jeopardized the environment, but also by important investments in the improvement of the quality of the environment.

Certainly, one of the most memorable incidents was the Vinca landfill fire. For several days, the smoke from “the least developed landfill in Europe”, as the deputy mayor of Belgrade, Goran Vesic, called it, made Belgrade look like it was encased in it. Citizens complained, and there were dissonant messages in the public as to who actually runs the landfill.

The news article about this ecological incident is the most read story on the list of titles having to do with ecology on the eKapija portal in 2021. While the fire was still being put out, our portal got to exclusive information that the Vinca landfill is supposed to be fully rearranged in three years. According to the previously defined project, in this location, the undeveloped garbage disposal site should be replaced by a green area on 42 hectares with a system for the collection of landfill gas, which would be turned into energy.

The company Beo Cista Energija, the carrier of this project, revealed the details of the future activities on this important project for eKapija.

– About three years from now, the 42 hectares on which the current landfill spreads will become a green area. After the existing landfill is ameliorated and closed, a system for the collection of landfill gas will be installed and used for the production of energy in the facility for the energy-utilization of the landfill gas. The closing of the landfill, along with the construction of the system for the collection of gases, will keep most of the gases which are now emitted into the atmosphere – Beo Cista Energija told eKapija in August.

At the same time, while the institutions and Beo Cista Energija kept transferring the responsibility for the management of the landfill between themselves in the media, the public was presented with the information about the legal vacuum that was present on the site.

– Beo Cista Energija expects the permit for the management of inert and construction waste to be issued any moment now, so that we would, in addition to the permit for managing municipal waste, take over from the PUE Gradska Cistoca the activities toward disposing of this waste at the newly built special landfill or reusing it following the treatment at a special facility for the treatment of construction waste – Beo Cista Energija revealed for eKapija and added that the administrative procedure was related to a parcel not affected by the fire.

After the situation calmed down in the second half of August, aside from announcements of grandiose ecological projects, there have not yet been any concrete details about when the final amelioration of the Vinca landfill is to start.

Ecological incidents and their direct consequences kept increasing the citizens’ awareness of what’s going on when it comes to the environment. Topics about investment drew considerable attention, and the second most read news article from this field is the one about the publishing of the tender for the construction of a sewer system and a waste water treatment facility on the left coast of the Danube, more precisely, in Krnjaca.

On November 26, the Belgrade Land Development Public Agency published the tender for the designing and construction of the first phase of the waste water treatment facility in Krnjaca. The financial funds for this project are provided through the European Investment Bank with the aim of upgrading the service of the treatment of waste waters before being poured into the river in the city municipalities of Kotez, Krnjaca and Borca.

A day after this was announced, the deputy mayor of Belgrade, Goran Vesic, clarified the details of the project and announced the publishing of the tender for the construction of a sewer system on the left coast of the Danube.

– In order for this plant to have waste waters to treat, on December 15 we are publishing the tender for the construction 80 kilometers of the sewer system in the Krnjaca settlement with collectors in Zrenjaninski Put Street, in Borca and Kotez, and with the reconstruction of sewer pumping stations – Vesic said.

The third spot on the list belongs to the news article about the cleaning of Lake Tresnja near Obrenovac with the help of a floating island system. This topic attracted attention due to the technology implemented for the removal of harmful matters. Artificial islands managed to successfully reduce the nitrates, nitrogen and suspended matters. The good results in addressing the pollution have also opened the possibility to perhaps start the project of the reconstruction of the hotel by the lake in the next period. This neglected vacationing site near Belgrade would thereby once again become available to lovers of nature for enjoyment and relaxation. Also, following the cleaning of Lake Tresnja, the floating island system has proven to be suitable for implementation in the revitalization of the remaining 11 Belgrade lakes.

The construction of utility infrastructure was also one of the important topics last year. The agreement that the Government of Serbia signed with the Chinese company CRBC on the construction of a sewer system, worth EUR 3.2 billion, was the topic of the fourth news article from our list.

The agreements were signed by the minister of construction, transport and infrastructure of Serbia, Tomislav Momirovic, and the director of CRBC in Serbia, Zhang Xiaoyuan, in the presence of the ambassador of China to Serbia, Chen Bo. As said at the time, through this project, numerous municipalities throughout Serbia will be helped in solving the decades long problem of the construction of a sewer system. Soon after the agreement signing ceremony, projects of the construction of utility infrastructure started in certain local self-governments.

The tender for the construction of a facility for the desulfuring of smoke gases and waste water treatment at TPP Kostolac A, which was published by EPS, placed fifth. This project marked the beginning of the ecological reconstruction of both blocks at said thermal power plant, so as to produce electricity that is as harmless to the environment as possible.

Next on the list is a similar topic, except that now it’s a request by EPS sent to the Ministry of Environmental Protection for the project of the construction of a waste water treatment facility at TPP Nikola Tesla B.

According to the preliminary design prepared by Ehting doo Beograd, the project entails the construction of a decentralized facility for the collection, canalization and treatment of waters polluted by mazut, oil, or coal, rainwater and sanitary waters from blocks B1 and B2, as well as waste waters from the future facility for the desulfuring of smoke gases and the pouring of filtered waters.

The now former director of EPS, Milorad Grcic, stated somewhat earlier regarding this project that the facility would reduce the level of air pollution from the current 80,000 tons of sulfur-dioxide per year to 4,500 tons, “so this type of pollution will be reduced 20 times”.

The big project of the construction of nearly 100 kilometers of a sewer system in Obrenovac, within the “Clean Serbia” project, placed seventh.

The minister of construction, transport and infrastructure of Serbia, Tomislav Momirovic, and the president of the Municipality of Obrenovac, Miroslav Cuckovic, attended the beginning of the construction, on which occasion it was announced that 98,390 meters of the sewer network and two facilities in Obrenovac and Ratari for the treatment of waste waters, which will cover the needs of 51,000 citizens, would be built.

The eighth spot features the news article about the construction of the waste water treatment facility in Zrenjanin. Metito Corporation from the United Arab Emirates will invest EUR 30 million in this project, and the facility, according to the plan, should feature four segments. The primary, secondary and biological treatments of the water will enable an adequate removal of waste matters, and the filtering procedure will have sludge as its byproduct, which will first be put in the sanitary landfill. The plan is also to define and implement more efficient methods of sludge management through a better usage with the future contractors.

Finally, the ninth spot features the news article about the investment in utility infrastructure in Kragujevac. Minister Tomislav Momirovic and the Chinese ambassador attended the beginning of the construction of 330 kilometers of a sewer system and two waste water treatment facilities, and the amelioration of the city landfill was announced on that occasion as well.

Nikola Ignjatovic

We presented the ten investments which attracted the most attention from our readers when it comes to investments in tourism. Make sure to take a look at the full list from the ECOLOGY segment.

We also invite you to take a look at the investments that marked the year 2021 when it comes to SPORTS, REAL ESTATE, TOURISM and TELECOMMUNICATIONS AND IT.