In less than a month, members of five civic initiatives from Bosnia and Herzegovina cleaned the rivers and river banks of the Drina, Neretva, Usora, Rzava and Željeznica from garbage at six locations, and а large amount of plastic as well as other waste were collected as part of the action.
The clean-up action was initiated by members of the environmental-humanitarian association Gotuša within the project “Municipalities without dams: Increasing the participation of citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the environmental decision-making process” implemented by project partners Center for Environment, Coalition for the Protection of Rivers of BiH and Czech NGO organization Arnica.
The river cleaning series began with several events on September 27, 2020, when World River Day was celebrated. The informal group “Valter defends Usora” from Tešanj symbolically carried out the cleaning in three places on the river Usora, where, according to the spatial plan, the construction of small hydroelectric power plants was planned, while members of the association “Eko Put” from Bijeljina cleaned the river Drina on the same day.
“The largest amount of garbage was in the Jelah area, but we have to say that there was less of it around the Usora River than in the last few years, which is commendable. Despite that, the volunteers collected more than 10 large bags of various waste “, said Robert Oroz from the environmental-humanitarian association Gotuša.
Other locations where rivers and river banks were cleaned are Konjic, where members of the association “Let me flow – Neretvica” cleaned the banks of the river Neretva, mainly above the beach “Lukšijski most”, and Višegrad, where the banks of the Rzava were cleaned by members of the Eco Center .
“In Visegrad, in addition to “regular garbage” that people have left in nature, such as plastic bottles and the like, a group of 15 volunteers from the Eco-Center found a pile of old tires in the Rzav River basin,” Oroz pointed out.
The last cleaning of the river was organized on October 11 in Fojnica, when the river Željeznica was cleaned.
“Among the volunteers were children who care about the condition and cleanliness of our rivers and were excited to help, and that’s always nice to see,” concludes Oroz.
All participants in this cleaning action appeal to the citizens to take more care of waste and cleanliness of rivers, which are our greatest natural wealth.
Vlastimil Karlik from the Czech NGO Arnika, which is implementing the project together with local organizations, notes that the rivers of Bosnia and Herzegovina belong to the last natural watercourses in Europe, but that their river pollution is a problem.
“We have noticed that prevention, collection and recycling are poorly organized in most municipalities, and garbage disposal is common. As a result, a huge amount of garbage ends up in watercourses. Volunteer events such as trash collection show that every citizen can contribute to the protection of the environment, ”said Karlik.
