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Read, Debate: Engage.
| topic: | Radioactive Pollution |
|---|---|
| located: | Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenia |
| editor: | Katarina Panić |
Nenad Radoš is 33, and he lives in the small town of Novi Grad in north-west Bosnia. "Lives are not traded" reads the banner he had been carrying while riding his bike for ten days. He had been protesting against Croatia's plan to build a nuclear waste disposal site at Trgovska Gora, just across the border, near his hometown. His trip should have taken place in July all the way to Strasbourg. Due to COVID-19 travelling restrictions, it happened inside the country instead.
"Sooner or later I will reach the European Court of Human Rights by cycling too," Nenad said on the day his trip had started. He visited ten cities, crossed by bike more than 500 kilometres and came back home last Saturday.
"My intention is to acquaint as many people as possible with the situation. This problem deserves to be discussed widely. It seems that the issue has been put in the background, especially during the pandemic," Nenad said to local media.
Croatia is obliged to take over half of the radioactive waste from the Krško power plant in Slovenia by 2023. The plant is a joint venture of the two republics from the communism era. So far, Trgovska Gora is the most likely place to be selected. Either side of the Bosnian-Croatian border, hundreds of thousand residents might be endangered. They have been protesting ever since Croatia marked their neighbourhood as a probable location.
Environmentalists warn that making such a decision without local communities' consent is not the way. "It is too risky to be imposed by force on any local community. An additional problem with Trgovska Gora is the close proximity to the border with Bosnia and Herzegovina. In line with the international rules, it is not appropriate to place such a facility so close to the border without an agreement with a neighbouring country," Toni Vidan from Zagreb-based NGO Green Action told the media.
According to the latest edition of BIRN's Western Balkans Stability Monitor, Bosnia's relations with its neighbours have been calm for the most part. The only exception is Trgovska Gora.
"Croatia is currently in the process of selecting a contractor who would carry out exploration and planning work needed to establish the waste storage facility at the location. Meanwhile, Bosnian officials are threatening to challenge Croatia's plans before the international courts," the monitor reads.
Image by Dirk Rabe
