The Provincial Secretariat for Urbanism and Environmental Protection has started answering the opinions and questions of citizens about the environmental impact of the Chinese tire factory Linglong in Zrenjanin. The answers about Linglong, to which the state gave large subsidies, are still not complete, they claim in the Civil Reversal.
According to the claims of the Civil Reversal, in the answers, the authorities often refer to unsubstantiated assessments and phrases about “compliance with regulations”, suggesting that Linglong’s work will not be dangerous for the environment.
The answers that the interested parties receive, as they claim in that civil society organization, contain only the answers of the processor of the study on Linglong’s possible influence, the company Enacta doo from Belgrade, which has two employees and believes that this information is not enough.
Enacta doo mostly answered the questions that the citizens sent to the Provincial Secretariat about Linglong with the sentence “it is not within the competence of the study processor and the project team”.
According to the representative of the Civil Reversal, the processor of the study confirmed with his answers that precise measurements of the distance of the nearest settlement from the factory complex Linglong, as well as its possible impact on the nearby nature reserve Carska bara, were not performed.
The Civil Reversal also claims that the processor of the study confirmed that no measurements of unpleasant odors were planned in Zrenjanin, so the air quality after the construction of Linglong will be monitored as before, with the existing equipment, which is not enough to determine the true condition.
They also say that Linglong did not plan automatic alert measures in case of pollution or other incidents, neither in the factory complex nor in nearby settlements, but he announced that he would consider drilling wells, in an area known for a mixture of groundwater and methane explosive gas whose future work in Zrenjanin and its surroundings is expected to include hundreds of trucks a day, has a reputation as a major polluter of nature in China, and the Civil Reversal reminds that citizens were prevented from attending two public hearings about the company due to the pandemic.
They add that Linglong received the consent to connect to the city water supply as a large consumer, although there has been a problem with the water pressure in its network in Zrenjanin for years.
Linglong received 95 hectares of free land from Serbia, A-category arable land converted into construction land, the value of which is estimated at 7.6 million euros.
They also received 75 million euros in subsidies from the budget for the employment of at least 1,200 workers by the end of 2024, and were declared an investor of national importance.
Despite the decision of the State Aid Control Commission, the Renewable Energy and Environment Regulatory Institute (RERI) recently announced that Serbia had illegally approved state aid to Linglong, Nova Ekonomija reports.