The Health of Mostar Citizens Must Not Be Compromised

(Patria) - Federal Minister of Environment and Tourism Edita Đapo met today with the Mayor of Mostar Ljubo Bešlić and the directors of public companies Komunalno d.o.o. Mostar and Deponija d.o.o. Mostar to discuss the current issues of waste disposal in this city. After the situation and problems were presented, Minister Đapo emphasized that the health of Mostar citizens must not be compromised and that urgent action must be taken in this regard, which was supported by the other participants of the meeting.

First and foremost, the operation of JP Deponija d.o.o. Mostar must be urgently unblocked, and only municipal waste should continue to be disposed of, and the peripheral stream at the landfill must be remediated, as ordered by the Federal Administration for Inspection Affairs. If necessary, competent institutions should be engaged in enforcing this order, as the mismanagement of municipal waste poses a great threat to the health and lives of citizens.

The City Administration of Mostar is tasked with immediately engaging certified laboratories to accurately determine the composition of the waste sludge and identify pollutants. The Mayor of Mostar and the directors of city public companies emphasized that the old landfill is the main cause of the problem, so the City Administration was instructed to order the bankruptcy trustee of the old landfill to urgently carry out its remediation.
Otherwise, the issue of landfill sludge management in Bosnia and Herzegovina is generally not resolved in accordance with European standards and directives, so Minister Đapo will propose to the Government of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina to initiate procedures for a systemic solution to this issue for all wastewater treatment plants.

Since waste management in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina falls under the jurisdiction of the cantons, the urgent involvement of the Government of Herzegovina-Neretva Canton, i.e., the relevant ministry, was requested in resolving this problem. The meeting was also attended by the Director of the Federal Administration for Inspection Affairs Anis Ajdinović and the Head of the Urban Planning and Ecology Sector Ejub Salkić.