In one year, 17 criminal charges were filed against 18 persons for 20 criminal acts due to the pollution of watercourses.
“We had an interesting case where a man emitted products produced on a farm directly into a nearby river, and even after the actions of the provincial inspector, he ignored their orders, and after that he was arrested in cooperation with the appropriate prosecutor’s office. We had an example regarding water pollution, where the damming or construction work on a river in southern Serbia resulted in the death of two or three thousand pieces of river trout from one pond. We also have two or three cases where construction waste was dumped directly into the river from several trucks,” says Novica Nedeljković, head of the Department for Protection and Suppression of Crime Against the Environment of the Serbian Interior Ministry.
The state audit institution found that Serbia does not have all the planning documents for waste water management, and the biggest polluters do not treat waste water and discharge it into rivers, almost without any control.
“There are three competent inspections in this area. It is a water inspection, sanitary and environmental protection inspection. In those conditions, while working and performing its inspection supervision, the water inspection had a small number of reports, and the sanitary and environmental protection inspection had no reports from entities for direct pollution. We have examples of entities that have had three inspections and still release water without registration and without a permit,” explains the president of the State Audit Institution, Dr. Duško Pejović.
“We hear that there has been a plague, possibly the inspection will come out, take samples, and for us as fishermen, that will end with the fact that the culprits will be determined, and in case it is determined who is the culprit, the appropriate procedure will be initiated, for which we do not know whether it will end effectively probably not with fines, because the pollution is repeated”, says Vladimir Stakić, member of the Board of Directors of the United Fishermen of Serbia.
The main sources of pollution of rivers and other water resources in Serbia are municipal wastewater from settlements, but also agriculture and industry.
“Certainly, the greatest danger to us is the technological processes in mining and the chemical industry, which is more dangerous than anything that can come from a household,” says Prof. President of the Environmental Protection Committee of the University of Belgrade, Dr. Ratko Ristić.
Due to the release of polluting and dangerous substances into water or land, legal entities can be fined from one and a half million to three million dinars.
“If citizens believe that there are some elements of a criminal offense, if they see the destruction of flora and fauna, the most adequate way is to turn to the prosecutor’s office, because all state authorities are obliged to submit a report to the prosecutor’s office when they receive a report from citizens,” says the head of the Department for Protection and suppression of crime against the environment UKP MIA of Serbia, Novica Nedeljković.
Suppression of criminal acts against the environment also requires international cooperation, so the environmental crime suppression unit cooperates with Interpol and Europol.
