AFP: Belgrade is the only country in Europe that releases unfiltered sewage into the Danube

Agence France-Presse, in a report on the unsolved problem of wastewater treatment in Serbia, writes about the pollution of the Danube, the second longest river in Europe, and the unhindered discharge of wastewater into it.

Not far from the historic center of Belgrade, fences are being opened to let the tanker, which goes to the magnificent Danube river, empty its cargo of sewage, writes the agency in an article titled “In Serbia, the Danube is not so blue “.

The agency notes that this is not a secret operation, but something no one wants to talk about, noting that Belgrade is the only European capital to dump its unfiltered sewage into the continent’s second longest river.

“The disgusting stench comes out of the brown, feces-filled water that is released into the river, which is light years away from the blue that inspired Austrian composer Johann Strauss’s” On the Beautiful Blue Danube, “writes AFP.

Fishermen living off the Danube and the Sava, which form a spectacular estuary near the old Belgrade fortress, call these daily spills “catastrophic”.

“I’m crying and the whole world really cares,” fisherman Dragoljub Ristic (59) told AFP.

Source: OLIVER BUNIC / AFP

About a third of the 1.6 million inhabitants of the Serbian capital are not connected to the sewage system and rely on septic tanks, the contents of which are discharged directly into rivers, according to the agency.

But the dirty water from those connected to the sewer system also ends up in the same place through the wastewater discharge, adds France Press. The agency claims that the Serbian Minister of Infrastructure Zorana Mihajlović An estimated 190 million cubic meters of sewage, or 60,000 Olympic swimming pools, are discharged into Belgrade’s waterways each year.

“No other major European city commits such a crime against its rivers,” said Goran Vesic, Belgrade’s deputy mayor, who is looking for the right wastewater treatment system, the agency said.

France Press recalls that the source of the Danube is in Germany, which flows 2,850 kilometers east through nine other countries and empties into the Black Sea.

In 2019, Austrian scientists reported “critical” levels of fecal e-coli bacteria in the Serbian part of the Danube, which, according to local experts, is a sign of heavy organic contamination.

With its strength and size, the Danube manages to “self-purify” relatively well from organic waste.

“For most of the year, bacteriological particles do not reach the critical level of 500 micrograms per milliliter,” said Bozo Dalmacija, a chemistry professor who conducts research on water quality in Serbia.

However, as France Press points out, those who spend their lives on the Danube say they have noticed deterioration, an accumulation of substances that reduces the depth of the water.

According to fishermen, the species of fish has changed with the decline in species that are considered noble and the increase in those that consume decomposing waste products such as catfish.

“We kill all our rivers, we will kill this one too. The Danube is a very strong and very strong river that handles pollution, but it cannot do it indefinitely,” said Mladen Jovic (59), a fisherman.

Serbia needs five billion euros for infrastructure

France Press points out that Serbia is a candidate to join the EU and that it hopes to join in 2025, and that its performance in the environmental field is an obstacle, that the country needs five billion euros of investment to build infrastructure that better respects nature .

Serbia declares that it is impossible to provide that amount within that period and requests a transition period of 11 years after joining in order to adapt.

Božo Dalmacija tells AFP that Serbia cannot do that for five years, and that it is too late.

At the end of July, President Aleksandar Vučić announced that 70 Serbian municipalities would be equipped with sewage treatment systems, while Professor Dalmacija estimated that this could not be done with the current budget and wondered if Vučić had other information.

Source: OLIVER BUNIC / AFP

Similar ads come from elsewhere, according to AFP. Five years ago, Belgrade’s deputy mayor promised that the wastewater treatment system in Belgrade would be completed in 2020, then moved that deadline to 2025, only to recently claim that the problem would be solved in 2029.

In January, the Belgrade authorities signed an agreement with the Chinese company CMEC for the construction of a water treatment plant, but they are still awaiting the start of construction, as Serbia has not yet allocated funds for the project, recalls AFP.