Civil organizations “Eko-Svest” and “Front 21/42” appealed to the Prime Minister of North Macedonia, Zoran Zaev to change his stance that the small hydro power plants are the most environmentally friendly sources of energy. The environmentalists are worried that, in a situation of a climate crisis that we live in, with the rise of global temperatures and the decrease of water resources, when we have been facing dry periods so many times, we will undoubtedly lose the drinking water and precious areas and biodiversity to the construction of the small hydro power plants.
The environmental organizations consider that proclaiming the small hydro power plants as environmentally friendly sources of energy, while many domestic and international documents prove otherwise, is an alarm about a wrong turn in the implementation of the Green Scenario from the Energetics Strategy of North Macedonia.
“It is justified that the Government in the part of its Program that refers to the living environment lays out the plan to ban the building of small hydro power plants in the protected areas. But at the press conference, the prime minister expressed a completely different stance by calling these projects as the most environmentally friendly out of all other environmental projects,” reacts “Eko-Svest”.
According to them, these contradictions are an indicator that the Government is neither aware of the impact from the implementation of the Green Scenario nor of the need for transformation of all the sectors in our society in order to ensure that the energy transition will be righteous for all citizens.
“We call you to pass a decision for an urgent stopping of all planned hydro power plants on the territory of the Mavrovo National Park and on Shar Mountain, which is under a procedure to be declared a national park. We demand that you make a decision to stop all the projects for small hydro power plants until a document isn’t prepared and adopted that will contain a final list of locations where a small hydro power plant can be built, with respect for the environment, the area and other criteria, and a ban to be imposed on building small hydro power plants in all protected areas that are stated in your Government’s program, in the “Protection of the Living Environment” section, “Front 21/42” alarms.
