The Jama mine in Bor, which belongs to the company Zijin, was closed in order to protect the environment and the inspection ordered them not to do anything without the approval of the Ministry of Mining and that they must have all certificates from the Ministry of Environment, said today the Minister of Mining and of Energy Zorana Mihajlovic.
“When it comes to the protection of the Pek River, Zijin must complete a new water purification plant by April 30,” Mihajlovic told K1 Television.
She pointed out that she is glad that there is activism and that people are thinking about air quality or rivers in Serbia.
“It is also important to be honest with ourselves and not to be hypocrites, because we throw garbage wherever we go and we cannot say that we did not notice tons of garbage in Perucac or landfills by the road, plastic bags scattered next to containers. The task of the state is to make laws and provide conditions for the protection of the environment, but the task of all of us is to take more care and change the environmental awareness,” the minister said.
She said that the new Law on Renewable Energy Sources will prohibit the construction of hydroelectric power plants in protected areas, because the realization of small hydroelectric power plants was not taken into account in the previous six years.
“We had a situation where local governments made planning acts without first checking whether something had changed in watercourses, that investors went beyond the framework of building permits, that the Bureau issued and annulled decisions, that the line ministries of environment and mining and energy they did not react and no one followed the realization of mini hydro power plants. People were rightly angry, who wouldn’t be angry to see you put a small river in a pipe. We are now banning it, not because the mini hydroelectric power plants are not working, but because, unfortunately, the projects have not been conscientiously realized,” said Mihajlovic, N1 reports.
