August 29, 2022 - A problem escalated at Veliko Vrilo, the most beautiful river spring of Cetina. The location is not protected, but it has been used by many guests and excursionists this summer again, who keep swimming in the spring. The leader of the municipality of Civljane says that he is powerless, and ecologists appeal to the Government to protect such natural beauties.

As Poslovni writes, among the karst springs of Cetina, Glavaš or Veliko Vrilo is the most beautiful, largest, and deepest.

The shades of blue of the hundred-meter-deep abyss attract crowds of tourists to Civljane, the smallest municipality in Croatia.

However, swimming is prohibited here. At least it used to be.

Visitors couldn't even know. The prohibition sign was removed a few years ago, authority over the spring from the Public Institution Priroda was transferred to our youngest nature park - Dinara - which has not yet come to life, and this means that no one is currently taking care of the spring!

"For me, it is a national shame that people swim and sheep bathe inside the spring. A large part of our county is supplied with this water", says Miranda Mandarić from Split for HRT.

The mayor says that he is powerless, he wrote to whoever he could, but the problem has not been solved yet.

As for the already cloudy spring, if the local authorities were allowed to do so, they would have protected the area themselves.

Environmentalists started voicing their concern as well. They are asking for the urgent adoption of regulations that would finally properly protect these natural pearls.

"What is problematic is that we still do not have such documents for other nature parks and national parks, which means that for only 4 of the 20 protected areas regulations have been adopted, even though all the legal deadlines for their adoption have expired", says Zrinka Jakl of the Sunce Association for Nature, Environment, and Sustainable Development.

Someone will need to explain to curious tourists that, even though they behave politely, they are destroying the spring of an important river.

"We found out about it on Instagram, the spring is beautiful", emphasises Csaba, a tourist from Hungary.

And that way it should stay. The Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development is on the move. There is still time until the rush of tourists next summer.

For more, make sure to check out our dedicated Lifestyle section.

ZAGREB, 18 June 2022 - In winter, particularly when strong southern winds blow, sea currents bring garbage from Albania along the coast of Montenegro to Croatia's southern Adriatic areas, which is an important environmental issue raised also in bilateral and multilateral meetings.

Therefore during a recent Adriatic-Ionian Forum in Tirana, reporters asked Albanian Tourism and Environment Minister Mirela Kumbaro about his topic, and on that occasion she said that sea pollution was a very important topic and she promised to provide answers in greater detail by e-mail.

A month after the forum, Minister Kumbaro said in her response that she had already taken some concrete steps in prevention of sea pollution which is also damaging to Albania and its burgeoning tourism industry.

She said that she had initiated a national clean-up plan and campaigns as well as the campaigns for raising awareness about this issue.

She also mentioned plans for investing into landfills and their rehabilitation.

Four years ago, Albania, with the support of the Swiss government, started identifying all the landfills near its coast and rated them in compliance with its national legislation.

The next step was to start relocating waste and to manage waste appropriately.

The Albanian government provides financial support to local authorities in these efforts, says Minister Kumbaro.

The supervision of waste management has been also stepped up.

On 1 June, a ban on the use of plastic bags entered into force in Albania.

Croatian MEP writes to EC about plastic waste in the Adriatic Sea coming from Albania

In early February, a Croatian member of the European Parliament, Karlo Ressler, sent a letter to the European Commission about plastic waste in the Adriatic Sea coming from Albania.

More that 90% of plastic waste and other types of waste come to Croatia's coast from the south, notably from Albania, this HDZ/EPP representative says.

Over 229,000 tonnes of plastics end up in the Mediterranean annually, and the sea currents and relatively shallow sea make Croatia exposed to plastic waste from the Mediterranean. More than a decade ago, Albania's government announced an investigation into plastic pollution coming from Albania to Croatia, however, there have been no results, said the MEP.

In his capacity as a member of the delegation to the EU-Albania Stabilisation and Association Parliamentary Committee, Ressler asked the EC to find ways to intervene through European programmes of environmental protection and Albania's accession negotiations to address this matter.

ZAGREB, 16 June 2022 - The Green Action NGO has joined a global action of some 400 associations calling for a shift to reusable packaging, saying reusable packaging is the only viable alternative to disposable plastic and plastic packaging.

On the occasion of World Refill Day, marked on 16 June, Green Action on Thursday called on the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development "to recognise reusable packaging as the only truly sustainable alternative to disposable plastic and plastic packaging."

The NGO expects the ministry's new rules on disposable plastics, packaging and packaging waste, and fishing tools will encourage the development of reusable systems and reduce the generation of plastic waste.

Green Action said that a global coalition of more than 400 organisations is calling on the world's five largest plastic polluters and governments to switch to reusable packaging and commit to transparent and accountable reuse and refill systems.

"In an open letter, members of Break Free From Plastic, Greenpeace and the largest network of environmental organisations, Friends of the Earth, called on the CEOs of Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Nestle, Unilever and Procter & Gamble to finally address the impact of their business and use of plastic on the environment, society and health, and the disproportionate impact on communities," Green Action said in a press release.

In the next 10 years, plastic production is expected to increase by as much as 40%, which will only exacerbate the climate crisis. The largest part of the increase accounts for disposable plastics and plastic packaging, the NGO noted, adding that governments have a responsibility to protect people from toxicity and should compel corporate polluters to take responsibility for the pollution they cause.

"A survey conducted in 28 large countries has shown that 85% of people believe that manufacturers and retailers should take responsibility for reducing, reusing and recycling plastic packaging,"  Green Action said.

For more, check out our politics section.

ZAGREB, 12 April 2022 - Participants in a "green" regatta on Monday removed abandoned waste from beaches and the seabed around the island of Šolta.

During the cleanup, over 700 kilos of waste was collected and most of it was plastic, which poses the biggest threat to marine life.

The "Cleaning Sailing Race Regatta", held on that Adriatic island off Split, included 12 divers who removed the waste from the seabed.

The partners in this campaign are the Split-based Sunce association and the Biotherm cosmetics and healthcare items brand.

Gabrijela Medunić Orlić, the executive director of the Sunce association, said that nowadays, public beaches are kept in good shape by local utility companies, however, other beaches are often full of litter and the utilities do not have enough workers to clean them up.

ZAGREB, 2 April 2022 - The Chairman of Bosnia and Herzegovina's Council of Ministers, Zoran Tegeltija, said on Saturday it was not clear to him why anyone in Dubrovnik and Croatia would be against the construction of an airport at Trebinje, noting that everyone would benefit from the project.

Tegeltija confirmed to the local media that he had received a letter from Dubrovnik Mayor Mate Franković requesting that all preparations for the construction of the Trebinje airport be suspended until the possible impact of the project on the environment, including the River Ombla, was assessed.

In his letter, Franković reminded Tegeltija that Bosnia and Herzegovina, just like Croatia and Serbia as a potential investor, was a signatory to the Convention on Environmental Impact Assessment in a Transboundary Context and that the airport construction should be suspended until it was confirmed that there would be no risk to the source of the River Ombla, which is situated only eight kilometres from the planned construction site.

The airport would be built in highly porous karst terrain.

Tegeltija said he was ready to discuss all unresolved issues with the Croatian government, including its plan to build a nuclear waste facility on Mount Trgovska Gora at Dvor na Uni, near the Bosnian border.

"I do not understand why the mayor of Dubrovnik is not happy about the construction of the airport at Trebinje, given its economic importance not just for Trebinje, but for the whole of Republika Srpska and Bosnia and Herzegovina," Tegeltija said, avoiding a comment on Dubrovnik's concern about the possible pollution of the Ombla.

Trebinje Mayor Mirko Ćuk said that Franković should not be interfering in this project. "I am in favour of all conditions being met, but without political interference. It is superfluous to comment on the claim that the construction of the Trebinje airport will affect the source of the river."

Earlier this week, the Council of Ministers formulated a proposal to open talks with Serbia on a memorandum of understanding for the construction of an airport at Trebinje. The opening of talks requires the approval of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The idea to build the Trebine airport was first floated two years ago by Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić, who said that the project was important for connecting Eastern Herzegovina to Serbia and the region and that it would be fully financed by Belgrade.

The airport would serve a town of barely 30,000 inhabitants and would be situated in a sparsely populated region. There are already three airports within a 50-km radius of Trebinje -- at Mostar, Dubrovnik and Tivat.   

For more, check out our business section.

ZAGREB, 2 April 2022 - Dubrovnik Mayor Mato Franković has sent a request to Bosnia and Herzegovina's Council of Ministers to halt the construction of the airport in the town of Trebinje, southern Bosnia and Herzegovina, until the impact of the project on the source of the River Ombla is assessed.

The road distance between Dubrovnik and Trebinje is roughly 30 kilometres.

The mayor sent the request to the chairman of the Bosnia and Herzegovina's ministerial council, Zoran Tegeltija, on Friday following the adoption of a memorandum by Bosnia's Council of Ministers and the government of Serbia on the future cooperation with the aim of implementing the project of Trebinje Airport.

Franković recalls that apart from Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia are also signatories to the Convention on Environmental Impact Assessment in a Transboundary Context (informally called the Espoo Convention).

The document is a United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) convention signed in Espoo, Finland, in 1991 that entered into force in 1997.

The Convention sets out the obligations of Parties—that is States that have agreed to be bound by the Convention—to carry out an environmental impact assessment of certain activities at an early stage of planning. It also lays down the general obligation of States to notify and consult each other on all major projects under consideration that are likely to have a significant adverse environmental impact across boundaries.

Franković says that the construction of airports is covered by the convention whereby the signatories are obliged to apply the principles and provisions of ESPO as well as of the Protocol on Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA).

"Therefore we express dissatisfaction with the current course of action and with the absence of initiative for dialogue...concerning this environmentally important issue," writes the mayor of the southernmost Croatian city.

Dubrovnik insists on the immediate suspension of the project until all the fulfillment of the requirements under the ESPO convention and SEA protocol.

According to the available information, the future airport should be situated in a Karst area and on soil permeable to water in the Talež settlement in the Serb entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina, just eight kilometres of the source of the River Ombla.

For more, check out our business section.

ZAGREB, 22 March 2022 - Primary school pupils in the northern Adriatic town of Opatija marked World Water Day on Tuesday by throwing 13,800 biodegradable balls with effective microorganisms into the sea, thus also marking 138 years of the existence of the regional water supply and drainage system.

Effective microorganisms consist of a mixture of about 80 different microbial groups, mainly photosynthetic bacteria, lactic acid bacteria and other naturally occurring microorganisms that help maintain the natural balance in a habitat.

The campaign was organised by the municipal water management company Liburnijske Vode, while the material for the balls was provided by the Rijeka-based company "Efektivni mikroorganizam originalna tehnologija".

This was the fourth such campaign organised in the Liburnia region to mark World Water Day.

ZAGREB, 22 March 2022 - The Environment Protection and Energy Efficiency Fund has sent 1,500 agreements on the co-funding of energy upgrade of family homes, valued at HRK 102 million (€13.6 million), the fund reported on Tuesday.

The fund's director Siniša Kukić underscored that more than 3,000 applications have been processed for energy efficiency cofinancing, and contracts for a part of these requests are being prepared.

"An analysis of the applications processed so far shows that a high percentage are being approved, as many as 87%," said Kukić. 

He underscored that the average amount approved for cofinancing is about HRK 68,000 per project.

"If we continue at this rate we expect that about 5,700 projects will be approved within this scheme," said Kukić and added that the programme is important with regard to achieving climate objectives but also in light of the increased energy prices. 

The majority of projects refer to insulating exterior walls, reconstructing roofs and replacing windows and doors while some intend to install systems powered by renewables.

The fund added that cofinancing projects will continue again this year through another public call for applications.

ZAGREB, 22 March 2022 - This year, World Water Day, which is observed on 22 March, is dedicated groundwater, which Croatia treats as its special asset.

Over 90% of water used for water supply systems in Croatia comes from groundwater, according to a press release issued by the Economy and Sustainable Development Ministry on Tuesday when World Water Day was celebrated under the slogan "Making the Invisible Visible".

Croatia's renewable underground resources are estimated at some 22.43 billion cubic metres per year. Also, the quality of groundwater in the country is high.

The ministry also notes that under the 2014-2020 Competitiveness and Cohesion Programme, a greenlight has been given to a total of 60 projects concerning the improvement of wastewater and water management system in Croatia.

Their total value is HRK 25.8 billion, and admissible costs are put at HRK 20.5 billion, of which HRK 14.4 billion is covered by grants from the EU funds.

The completion of those 60 projects will enable 575,000 Croatians to get access to safe drinking water from the public water supply system, and approximately 2.5 million inhabitants will be provided with the improved wastewater and water purification systems.

As many as 1,700 kilometres of water supply networks and also 4,100 kilometres of public drainage systems will be constructed or upgraded.

Croatia has 25 billion cubic metres of surface water supply. Of that 23 percent refers to sources, streams and rivers springing and pouring into on Croatian territory.

All natural and artificial streams in Croatia are some 32,000 kilometres long on the aggregate.

(€1 = HRK 7.564472)

ZAGREB, 3 March 2022 - Recovering key species for ecosystem restoration is the theme of this year's World Wildlife Day, marked on 3 March to raise awareness of the world’s wild animals and plants.

World Wildlife Day 2022 will draw attention to the need to reverse the fate of the most critically endangered species, to support the restoration of their habitats and ecosystems, and to promote their sustainable use, the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development said in a press release on Thursday.

Citing data from the International Union for Conservation of Nature, it said that over a million different species of wild fauna and flora are facing extinction.

The last EU State of Nature report also expressed concern about the rapid rate of reduction of biodiversity in the European Union. Nature in the EU, including Croatia, is mostly threatened by human activity, in particular by alterations of natural ecosystems, unsustainable use of natural resources, and pollution, which has resulted in continued destruction and loss of species, habitats, and ecosystems. In addition to human influence, nature is also facing challenges related to climate change.

Like other EU countries, Croatia also has recognized the need to take appropriate action to conserve wildlife species and habitats.

"We cannot do without nature, and the loss of biodiversity, species, habitats, and ecosystems indeed poses an existential threat to life on Earth," the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development said.

World Wildlife Day will be marked at Zagreb Zoo on Saturday when educators will inform visitors about endangered animal species and their habitats.

For more, check out our lifestyle section.