The postponement of the building of regional landfills in the country is only to the detriment of the people and the living environment. Apart from polluting the soil, water, and air, the existing municipality landfills are of limited capacity and one day they will reach their full capacity. On the other hand, the regional landfills that would be built are different from what we have now since only processed non-dangerous waste would be deposited there.
This was explained by Borche Kuzmanovski, a program coordinator for the green economy of the Association for sustainable development and protection of the living environment “Go Green.” This was stated after last week’s statement by the mayor of Sveti Nikole municipality that the municipality disagrees with the plan for building a regional landfill on European standards in the Ovche Pole village of Mechkuevci.
“At the moment, the temporary municipality landfills aren’t managed properly i.e. the removal od waste in technical and operative sense isn’t in accordance with any of the international standards for landfills. The collected quantities from the communal waste containers are deposited without any previous treatment which results in direct pollution of the soil, underground waters, climate i.e. the living environment in general as well as people’s health,” said Borche Kuzmanovski for Meta.mk.
Conversely, the regional landfills, including the one that is planned to be built in the Sveti Nikole municipality, will serve as centers for waste treatment. Only non-dangerous waste will be deposited with its proper depositing on location, with covering over the soil and proper treatment of the discharge to prevent pollution of the soil, air, and water.
The Ministry of Environment and Physical PLanning didn’t want to comment for Meta.mk the statements issued by the Mayor of Sveti Nikole, Dejan Vladev that the local authorities don’t want a modern plant for waste treatment to be built near Mechkuevci, and also the announcements for issuing a call for a referendum in the municipality. The ministry briefly stated that this week there will be a meeting between them and the mayors of the Eastern planning region where they will be discussing this issue.
Otherwise, the Sveti Nikole municipality for several months had been blocking the forming of the Public-interregional enterprise for waste management “Eko Istok-Severoistok.” The municipal council should appoint a member of the enterprise’s supervising and managing board, and the election of a director would follow. Only with a fully established enterprise, the European Union will allow a call for an international tender for the selection of a company that would be building the regional landfill near Mechkuevci.
The local authorities are postponing the issuing of the call for a tender procedure that was supposed to happen at the start of this year. For the building o the regional landfill, grants from the EU were secured in the amount of 40 million EUR, and the municipalities from the Eastern planning region have already received containers for waste selection, trucks and equipment. Also, in the Eastern and the Northeastern planning region it is planned the illegal landfills to be cleaned and the current municipal landfills to be closed, but all of this is connected with the final implementation of the regional system for waste management.
With the new Law on waste management, the deadline that the municipalities have to implement the regional waste management system is clearly defined and if in 2 years since the agreement was concluded they fail to do so, then the government will take over the authority.
The regional landfill at the village of Mechkuevci in the Sveti Nikole area should have the following plants (installations) for waste treatment: mechanical pre-treatment for waste cutting, processing non-ferrous metals and screening, composting of the wet fraction, raffination, and maturation. There should be a separate plant for sorting paper, plastics, glass, and metal waste where the material would be recycled. The location would have a small plant for composting garden waste. This has never been done at one location in the country i.e. the waste was only deposited.
Otherwise, the Sveti Nikole municipality is the last example of blocking the building of a regional landfill for the Eastern and the Northeastern planning region, and the municipality of Gostivar on several occasions was announcing that is doesn’t want Rusino to become a regional landfill in the Polog region.
