Lukavac is one of the most polluted cities in Europe, in which only in 2014. 48,799 people were registered with diseases caused by pollution. It has seven large and five smaller polluters in four square kilometers, according to the Environmental Forum of the Municipality of Lukavac.

We are in contact with the authorities daily - either we write letters to them or we go on meetings looking for a solution, but nothing happens. Only GIKIL drops 68 tons of toxic gases in the air. In addition, according to environmental permits, large polluters are SSL and FCL, and we appreciate that actual pollution is far greater than allowed. The storage of explosive, toxic and inflammable substances in the premises of individual operators is also an increasing danger, as well as the discharge of illicit substances into the Spreč river. During these actions, several regulations and legal provisions are violated. We found that among these polluters there are some who do not have an environmental permit as Art-Recycling, which deals with piracy or burning of car tires - says Spona Nezir, of the Forum, who will, if the authorities do nothing to reduce pollution, request a thematic session of the Municipal Council Lukavac on the topic of pollution of air, soil and water.

IGNORING

The head of the Lukavac municipality, Dzevad Mujkic, did not have time to comment on the situation in Lukavac, but according to the secretary, he said that the people of the Forum said enough.

According to the analysis of the non-governmental organization Eco-action from Sarajevo, made in the winter of 2014, the largest air pollutants in BiH are thermal power plants in Tuzla and Kakanj, Željezara in Zenica, but also small domestic fireplaces and large central heating boilers for coal and wood in all towns, and motor vehicles, especially those with diesel engines. They point out that the most polluted cities in BiH are Tuzla, Zenica, Sarajevo, Kakanj and Lukavac, where pollution often exceeds the limit values up to ten times. Eco-action also warns that in the periods of high air pollution, the appropriate public health response is completely lacking, and that the advertisement sends a wrong message, like the one from 2013 to put a scarf on the mouth or to include cooking hoods.

In our country pollution is completely ignored. In all the 14 governments we have, there is no single ministry dealing exclusively with the environment, and where there is environmental component - mainly for the purpose of naming national quotas or the balance of the Jender. So there is no will to solve this problem. On the other hand, the expert public is silent, doctors do not raise their voice, although they treat children every day from various diseases that are the result of pollution. We were trying to reach some doctors who could talk about this problem, but we managed to get to the spokesperson and that's the end. It also has responsibilities on media that are quite superficial about the problem of pollution. The conclusion is that there is no awareness of the problem - says Anes Podić, from  Eco-Action.

As an illustration, there is the case of Beijing, which almost daily filled the covers of the local newspapers in 2013 because of the degree of pollution, and when the results of pollution measurement for six years were published, it turned out that Beijing was worse than Tuzla only once in those six years.

- In the 1970s, Sarajevo had a decree banning small fires in certain parts of the city; in 1976, a loan from the World Bank for gasification of the city was taken because the gas produced the least pollution, and now we have more fireboxes than ever - whole  village Tibra is heated on hard coal and it seems that someone has given them permission for it - says Podic. It emphasizes that every pollutant, from factory to car, pays a certain amount to the Protection Fund for the scum that a part of the funds returns to the cantons in which the pollution was created, but it is completely unknown how this money is spent.

- There is neither a will nor a desire to protect the environment. Laws are adopted and mostly copied from the EU, but the application is extremely questionable because there are no intervention measures, no one measures the amount of floating particles that are the biggest problem for us. While in London or Paris you have an alarm at 100 micrograms of those particles per cubic meter, in our country, specifically in Sarajevo, that amount of 20 days without end does not drop below 100. Pollution is six times higher than allowed, especially when the temperatures fall and when they are more intense. The situation is a bit better only when there is wind, and otherwise it is the only rescue for all who live in Sarajevo to flee the city - Podic warns.

MONEY FOR SALARIES

The Environmental Protection Fund in FBiH  collected about 6.9 million KM during the year, from the polluter pays and the cantons get  about 70% of that money.

These 30 percent of the remaining funds are spent on projects of federal significance and almost 90 percent of that money is transferred to local communities for projects that are being implemented in their area. The cantons spend their money as they want and we do not have an insight into it, but I can safely say that for three years now, not a cent of that money has gone into environmental protection. In Tuzla, they openly said that the money that was collected from environmental protection over the years was lent to the Government for salaries, and in the Zenica-Doboj Canton the same way. In Tuzla, they recently received an additional 12.6 million from TT Tuzla, who they sued for pollution, and none of the money went to environmental protection. When we asked for information on how the money that we are being forwarded to them is being used by us, they reminded us that we are embroiled in the constitutional powers and we asked the Government of FBiH to release us the obligation to report on the spending of that money, because we do not have this information - says Safet Harbinja, director of the Fund.

Professor of Geo-engineering Engineering from Tuzla, Zvjezdan Karadzin, emphasizes that "all major polluters have permits because the environmental impact study is a prerequisite for urban planning, but that environmental permits are not easy to comply with."

It states that environmental permits are obtained for five years, not permanently, and that it is a prerequisite for an environmental permit to study environmental impacts for new companies or an action plan with measures to gradually reduce pollution.

- In their work, they include the best available technologies, and during these five years in which the license is valid, the authorities monitor progress. But some are so old that it's impossible to improve their production process, like Koksara or Soda, but you can not extinguish them because they are contaminants. You have those who can improve the production process, but the space around them is so polluted that it's almost impossible to do anything because cleaning and decontamination is costly expensive. This is the case with Coxar or Sodom - you can not impose European standards on them because they use old technologies and need a transformation period in which they will try to improve the existing system of work, but also introduce new technologies, which is very expensive. Factories should actually start working with the science community and faculties and in that way seek solutions to reduce the pollution they produce because they can not help themselves, we must help them, Karadzin concludes.

He notes that many major polluters, such as the largest thermal power plants, are already working to reduce pollution, that new facilities that are going to be built soon will be fully in line with EU standards, and that cement plants operating in BiH are more and more polluting.