Environmental inspectors investigated the two biggest industry complexes within the yard of the former Skopje Steelworks – “Makstil” and “Liberty Group” (former ArcelorMital), but still do not have a clue who is behind today’s pollution of the Vardar River near Lisiche in Skopje, the capital of North Macedonia.
When the photographs of Vardar River appeared on social networks with a reddish-brown color discharge and when the City’s Inspectorate alarmed their colleagues at the State Environmental Inspectorate about new pollution of the river, samples were taken both from the complexes’ wastewater treatment plants and from the collector, which will be taken for analysis at the PE Waterworks’ laboratory. This was confirmed for Meta.mk by state inspector Mite Nacev.
“The samples will not be sent for analysis today, since it’s a non-working day due to the elections, so they will be sent tomorrow,” said Nacev, who also confirmed that the inspectors have visited both Makstil and Liberty Group, but from the location’s inspection, they couldn’t determine whether there was an accident or what else could have caused the pollution.
According to the inspector, Liberty Group wasn’t working today nor during the previous days.
In the meantime, the Ministry of Environment issued a press release about the incident.
“Neither Liberty Skopje nor Makstil AD haven’t reported any type of accident and during the inspection of the wastewater treatment plants, no colors were noticed in the wastewaters” said the press release issued by the Ministry of Environment.
In September, last year, Liberty Group was fined by the State Inspectorate in the amount of 100.000 EUR due to the accident that was caused by this company. A tub burst and large quantities of wastewater containing iron and acid spilled without proper treatment by the wastewater system.
