The first 82 days since the Mayor Danela Arsovska took over the helm of Skopje, the capital of North Macedonia, expired on Friday, the 28th of January, which prompted Meta.mk to check on site whether one of the most important promises that Arsovska gave in her election campaign was fulfilled: cleanup of the illegal dumps throughout Skopje, Meta.mk writes.
During her election campaign, Danela Arsovska several times gave her promise to eradicate the illegal dumps in Skopje. On the 10th of October last year she stated:
“We shall clean all the illegal landfills and dumps in the first 82 days and we shall revitalize those locations as clean, green spaces,” she stated in the post on the social media, which was republished by a number of Macedonian media outlets.
Indeed, during the past 82 days, the City Hall of Skopje did put in effort and, also, on several occasions published press releases about the cleanups of various locations throughout the capital.
The last of the illegal landfills that were eradicated by the city administration was the bank of River Vardar near the railway bridge between the villages of Gorno Lisiche and Trubarevo. 4 000 cubic meters of waste and construction debris were collected at this location of 13 000 square meters.
“So far, more than 120 mapped illegal landfills and dumps throughout Skopje were subject to cleanup. They were mapped and cleaned and actions are being undertaken to prevent any further creation of dumps on these locations. There is an increased monitoring and, of course, large fines in force for those disobeying the law,” says the reply that Meta.mk received from the City Hall of Skopje to our query ten days ago about the cleanup of the illegal landfills and dumps scattered throughout the capital.
In the meantime, the cleaning of the illegal dumps is continuing at several locations throughout the municipalities in the Skopje area, so on the 25th of January, Meta.mk’s team decided to visit and inspect some of the critical sites in and around Skopje and to check whether these were cleaned up by the city’s authorities.
The first location we visited was the bank of River Vardar in Karposh 3 and 4 areas. We found at least several sites where primarily construction waste is being illegally dumped and which haven’t been cleaned. The first location with construction waste is located across the place where the new bridge, planned as a continuation of the Ljubljanska Street, is being built. We also came across a smaller illegal dump near the Ilinden Boulevard, between the barracks and the newly built buildings, but also at the location where the new park, that has been promised to the citizens of Karposh municipality for a long time, should be built.
Actually, the location for the future park, starting from the facilities of the Public enterprise “Water Supply and Sewage” to the sports playgrounds along the bank River Vardar has been turned into several smaller landfills. It is evident at the site that this place has been cleaned from waste several times, but obviously, some people are still dumping waste here in Karposh.
We continued our tour toward Vizbegovo, along the road that leads from Vizbegovo to Shuto Orizari. The whole area between the municipalities of Butel and Shuto Orizari and under the auspices of the City Hall of Skopje and the municipality of Chucher Sandevo is part of the Skopje Planning Region. The position of this site is ideal for illegal disposing of enormous quantities of waste since that has been happening for years, while the municipalities has been passing the responsibility to clean the illegal landfills and dumps one to another.
The whole length of road from the outskirts of Vizbegovo up to Shuto Orizari is littered on the both sides with all kinds of waste – construction debris, old furniture, communal waste, and enormous bags with unidentified content. Going along the road, we came across an illegal dump where one citizen from Vizbegovo was collecting plastic bottles to take them for sale as selected waste.
Source:Meta.mk
