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The belt around the dam on Lake Potpećko near Priboj and the shoreline is covered with thousands of cubic meters of various debris that Lim, due to rising water levels, collected from various landfills in its upper reaches. Experts estimate that Lim will bring some 40,000 cubic meters of floating waste from the landfills of five municipalities in Montenegro to Potpec. Even half of that garbage is swallowed up forever.
The situation that is happening at Lake Potpećko is no longer a catastrophe, but we can freely say ecological genocide. Years ago, the garbage that the river brought to the dam floated on the lake.
There is so much trash that you can’t see the surface of the lake. Everything that people don’t need has accumulated there, from Plav in Montenegro to the hydroelectric power station in Priboj. That is why many called Lake Potpećko a floating landfill.
Montenegro’s wave of floods brought with it garbage cans that are accumulating at the hydroelectric power station. According to experts’ estimates, some 40,000 cubic meters of garbage are floating in the lake, endangering the operation of the “Potpeć” hydroelectric power station, and 50 percent of the waste sinks permanently pollute the Priboj valley.
However, the biggest polluter is the Stanjevina landfill near Prijepolje, which is located next to Lim.
“The situation is a catastrophic landfill. It is located at the entrance to Prijepolje, on the main road, so it is visible. People were horrified by the sight, the hills of garbage. Under public pressure, it was closed. But, they are not remediation, and Lim still carries garbage from that landfill, especially when the water level is high, ”says Priboj environmental activist Sasa Bjelic.
Not far from the dam on Lake Potpećko, a 300-meter-long floating cable would be installed in late summer, which would collect the garbage floating in the Lim.
Siniša Laković from the Priboj environmental association “Jastreb” believes that the dumping of garbage on the coast of Lima should be banned. In his opinion, the cable would fix the problem permanently.
“The plan is to install a cable. It is conditionally said that it is a floating barrier that they would put at the beginning of the lake. So we would stop all this influx of garbage. And in a later phase, we would base ourselves to clean from the hydroelectric plant to the barrier” says Laković.
“Do you think I can save some cables or trash opinion before the election?” The problem must be solved at the state level, and so far we haven’t seen any desire to seriously solve it, ”says Bjelic.
Lake Potpećko has long been an idea for the tourist potential of Priboj. Not far from the dam, a fishing village was even built which, sadly due to garbage problems, never came back to life.
