Environmental activists in Serbia have been working for months to remove household waste that has polluted the 220-kilometer Lim River.
“Every day we fill between 20 and 25 trucks, which is estimated at 500 cubic meters of waste,” Sinisa Lakovic of the environmental association Gastrip told the Serbian news portal “N1Info RS” the day before yesterday.
He explained that about 20,000 cubic meters of garbage have been extracted from the river since last November.
A wave of high water that flowed into the river at the end of December and the beginning of January facilitated the flow of waste. Most of the waste came from five municipalities in neighboring Montenegro, which do not have their own landfills.
Serbia has seen tons of floating waste and other debris build up behind a barrier across Lake Potbek, following heavy rains.
The Balkan News Network, which specializes in Eastern European and Eurasian affairs, stated that the waste headed for the course of the Lim River, which flows into Lake Potbek, and gathered behind a barrier extending across the lake that was created to protect the hydroelectric power station.
Pictures published on social media and in the Serbian press show a vast area of debris extending across the surface of the lake, in which debris of household appliances, such as refrigerators, freezers, stoves, and dead animals, whether domestic or wild, appear, as well as various metals, wood pulp, and plastics. .
For its part, the hydroelectric power station stated that huge containers have been rented to transport garbage, and additional machines will be used to remove the accumulation of waste in the lake.
The Lim River is an international river that flows into Serbia from the neighboring Republic of Montenegro, and many on the Serbian side say that “waste has been transported downstream from Montenegro, which further complicates the problem.”
While the Institute of the Republic of Serbia’s Hydrometeorology had warned of the possibility of heavy rains in Montenegro and parts of Serbia, including the Priboj area, which would last for several days, which means a rise in the water level on the Lim River.
The Lim River begins in Montenegro, crosses southern Serbia, and flows into the Drina River in Bosnia and Herzegovina near the city of Visegrad.
About 20,000 cubic meters of rubbish have been extracted from the river since last November.