Forto installed meters in 2019, then fled to the state level: What does it matter that we are being poisoned, the important thing is that the SDA is not in power!

Written by: A. Čorbo-Zećo

Here is what happens to the filter for measuring air pollution within 24 hours. We are inhaling poison. Equipment for the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering of the University of Sarajevo, which the Government of the Sarajevo Canton in cooperation with the Swedish Embassy and UNDP BiH procured, will enable us to continuously monitor air quality, but also to create and implement measures to combat this phenomenon, Edin Forto said in 2019.

And so four years passed as we just watched ourselves being poisoned, breathing air that is life-threatening! We have meters, so there is no dilemma. We are being poisoned!

We hear little or nothing about measures and the fight. Because Forto left the Sarajevo Canton for the state level, to 'fix' the situation in the Ministry of Transport and Communications of BiH. How much they care about citizens and the air they breathe was shown by the example of the construction of the Southern Interconnection. In fact, the Troika proved to us once again that the interest of Dragan Čović, and later Ambassador Michael Murphy, is more important to them than the lives of citizens. And that project was halted, even though gas diversification would provide benefits to citizens, which would ultimately reduce heating on solid fuels.

And, due to the consequences of air pollution, an average of 3,300 people die prematurely each year in BiH, according to World Bank data.

The problem of air pollution in the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina is growing year after year. There are no protests, the authorities are silent and measuring. As for possible protests due to polluted air, you can only find data on demonstrations for the company Zrak.

Simply put, it seems we have gotten used to the poisoning. A quiet death, on a quiet path towards the European Union, where we are almost admitted!?

Now, whether we go there dead or alive is less important. The important thing is that the authorities talk about imaginary billions we will receive, and then perhaps spend on treatments for cancers and various respiratory diseases.

We even bring in tourists, so on December 31 we gather at the Eternal Flame at a time when a Warning episode was declared, which prohibits public gatherings. That is not enough for us, so we also organized a gathering on December 30.

Admittedly, the ban on gatherings only applies when the Union announces a protest in front of the Government of the Sarajevo Canton. Others can go to Severina, paid for with almost a million marks, because who cares what we breathe as long as the SDA is not in power.

One must be honest and say that even during the SDA's rule, the pollution problem existed, but then it was talked about much more loudly. The current government, and then the opposition (the Troika), loudly filled the media with their advice, plans, measures, but once they came to power, the criticisms fell silent. The important thing is to breathe, and that the SDA is not in power. The quality of all this is less important. We should be grateful that they knocked out one leg of the tripod, leaving two, and precisely that one led by Dragan Čović, who stopped the Southern Interconnection.

And the one who promised in 2019 to urgently install air purifiers in kindergartens and primary schools attended by children up to 12 years old – that is Edin Forto, well, he advanced, before fulfilling his promise.
Because there are no purifiers, nor is there a citizen uprising. Because, after all, the SDA is not in power, so what does it matter if we are a little poisoned!