While Neum Suffocates: Federal Inspectorate Has No Information on Illegal Waste Import from Croatia!

For years, municipal waste from municipalities in neighboring Croatia and from the Pelješac peninsula has been daily disposed of in the Neum municipality area, in the hinterland of BiH's only coastal city, writes the Patria news agency.

This problem was presented at the BiH Parliament during a session by Hanka Vajzović, a DF representative in the House of Representatives of the BiH Parliament.

- The question concerns the import of municipal waste from the Pelješac peninsula, i.e., from Croatia, and its disposal and landfilling in Neum. Since I have information from the field, the question is: on the basis of which international treaty or domestic regulation have border control services been enabling the import of municipal waste, garbage, into our country daily for years and its disposal in the hinterland of Neum, and so close to the City Administration. Anyone who has been there in the summer must have had problems with fires, smoke, and environmental endangerment, as this is a common accompanying phenomenon. If the import of garbage is prohibited by law, what will the Council of Ministers undertake to stop this practice – said Vajzović.

The question was also forwarded to the Prime Minister of the FBiH, Fadil Novalić, and it read: "Why does the Federal Administration for Inspection Affairs approve (does nothing to prevent) the illegal import of municipal waste from Croatia and its disposal at an unregulated landfill in the hinterland of Neum?"

The response states that inspectors have carried out supervision and that the Federal Ministry of Environment and Tourism has issued an environmental permit to the municipality of Neum for the rehabilitation of the existing landfill and the construction of accompanying facilities adapted to the regional disposal concept at the Klepovica site.

- The Federal Inspectorate has no information about the illegal import of municipal waste from Croatia and its disposal at this landfill. Cross-border waste trafficking is within the jurisdiction of the goods traffic control bodies at the border – the response states.

Mirko Šarović, Minister of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations, emphasized that there is no legal regulation in BiH that addresses or permits such cross-border trafficking, there is no agreement with Croatia that allows this international trafficking, and there is no treaty on which such a practice could be based.

- It should be stated that the Basel Convention permits the cross-border transport of hazardous waste only in cases where the country to which the waste is transported has a recycling facility. BiH and Croatia signed an agreement on cooperation in environmental protection on April 27 this year. To complete the information, it should be said that BiH received 140,000 euros for the rehabilitation of the landfill in Neum, and these activities are underway and are being led by the Federal Ministry of Environmental Protection and Tourism. This issue can serve as an initiative, it should be given significant attention, and the Indirect Taxation Authority, the Border Police, and the Border Management Commission should also be involved in its resolution – stated Šarović.