BCIF :: Grant Programs :: Advanced Community Advocacy Program :: Stories from Local Communities :: “Green Signposts” for Cleaner Raška

Advanced Community Advocacy Program: Stories from Local Communities

“Green Signposts” for Cleaner Raška
"...Thanks to the help and support from BCIF, ISC and USAID, we succeeded to get the things started and motivate people to move on and do something for themselves

Initiative of citizens and the Eco Club “Green Signposts” influenced on making changes of the Decision on urban planning which helped establishment of the system of organized removal of waste from rural areas of the municipality of Raška.
Local self-government in the municipality of Raška didn’t show interest in the program of organized removal of waste from rural areas for many years, and as a result, a number of illegal waste disposals were formed along the river, medieval monasteries and fields. The authorities deliberately left out in the Decision on urban planning the procedures for removal of waste from rural areas, and over 3,000 citizens were deprived of the possibility to dispose waste in garbage bins and containers. Insufficient capacity of the Public Utility Company, poor infrastructure and the estimate that there is no cost-effectiveness are the reasons for not placing containers for households in villages, and institutions such as rural schools were forced to dispose their waste at illegal dumps or to burn it.

Mile Gajtanović, a resident of the village Rvati, says that on several occasions he loaded his garbage and his neighbours’ garbage on his tractor and drove it to the city landfill. The landfill is located several kilometres from his village, so transportation of waste was time consuming and occasionally Mile, together with his neighbours, organized burning of garbage in a nearby field. Anyway, he had the biggest problem with other residents who threw away their garbage at illegal waste disposal on his property, along the local road. “We have tried to solve the problem several times: we called television, called the inspection and transported tractors and trailers full of garbage to the city dump. We asked the inspection to solve this problem, to remove garbage and stray dogs. Illegal waste disposals are a real shame for the citizens and the municipality, and I don’t want my children to play here and get some infectious disease”, said Gajtanović.

Activists of the Eco Club “Green Signposts” from Raška launched in 2009 and 2010 a big action to remove illegal waste disposals in the area of the municipality of Raška. By activating pupils of primary and secondary schools, members of the Serbian Army, the citizens of Raška and with help of employees of the public utility company, they managed to completely remove the waste from the three largest illegal waste disposals. Over 300 volunteers participated in the actions, and after cleaning the area of former waste disposals they placed boards with environmental educational messages to citizens. Simultaneously with the clean up actions, they mobilized citizens with the aim to influence together on representatives of the municipality of Raška to change the existing Decision on urban planning, which would define the procedures and mechanisms for removal of waste from rural areas. Thanks to concrete activities to remove illegal waste disposals the representatives of the Eco Club “Green Signposts” got great support from citizens, especially residents of rural areas. By organizing lectures in rural communities, a strong media campaign and involving more citizens’ associations they increased the pressure on members in the local parliament to establish a system of removal of waste from rural areas. The competition “I draw or write what I think about environment protection” succeeded to attract about 220 primary school pupils in urban and rural areas to join this initiative. After months of organizing activities and a strong media pressure they succeeded to influence on municipal decision makers in Raška municipality to adopt unanimously the changes and amendments to the Decision on urban planning which define the procedures and mechanism for disposal of waste from rural areas. In addition to the parliamentary decision, the Commission for protection and improvement of the environment made a decision on annual participation of the municipality in procuring containers for rural areas, so the citizens in villages were enabled to dispose waste in containers.

Nine households in the village Kaznovića, first signed the contract in Raska municipality with the PUC regarding disposal of waste from rural areas after changing the Decision on urban planning. Slaviša Marković, a private entrepreneur, one of the persons who organized signing of the contract, says that they previously had a huge problem and were forced to dispose garbage at illegal waste disposals, in the area between the highway and railway Raška - Kosovska Mitrovica. “Part of the dump went down on the railroad tracks so the Section for track maintenance warned us repeatedly of the possibility of filing criminal charges for endangering traffic. Since we signed the contract with the PUC and when containers were placed, the problem that we had was completely solved. A truck of the public utility company comes once a month to empty the container and the price of services ranges from 200-300 dinars per month per household”. Slaviša points out that areas along Radošićka River and White Stream are particularly endangered by illegal waste disposals and he hopes that citizens in other villagers will get organized and take their example.

Seventy-four year old Dragić Košanin from Pavlica, says that he gladly agreed to sign a contract with the PUC, although the container is located about 500m from his home. “It won’t be hard for me to take garbage to the container, although I am old, because I want to show young people how important it is to solve the problem of garbage disposal”.
The municipality of Raška provided over 40 containers for rural areas later in 2010, which made an opportunity for continuous removal of waste from five villages (Pavlica, Rvati, Kaznoviće, Rudnica and Drvenica).

The project “Make It Clean” was supported within the programme Advocacy in local communities, that is being implemented by BCIF in partnership with the Institute for Sustainable Communities (ISC) and funded by USAID.

“The knowledge gained at BCIF seminars, such as lobbying, citizens’ mobilization, public speaking, were of inestimable importance for the successful implementation of the project. Thanks to the help and support from BCIF, ISC and USAID, we succeeded to get the things started and motivate people to move on and do something for themselves” - Zoran Simović, president of the Eco Club “Green Signposts”, Raška.

>>Success stories