On Monday, at the rally in front of the town hall, the protester pointed out that Mayor Zoran Janković is lobbying intensively to get a building permit to continue the construction of the C0 sewerage channel before the court decides on the need for an environmental impact assessment. Politician Aleš Hojs even advised the Ljubljana Mayor to run for mayor of Belgrade instead.
The 22nd rally to protect clean drinking water, which is being threatened by the construction of the C0 sewerage channel, took place in front of the Ljubljana City Hall on Monday, the 19th of May. “In the last month, we have also saved our drinking water from Zoran Janković‘s poisoning with the C0 sewerage channel. He has not yet completed and started the dangerous C0 channel, through which three million litres of dangerous sewage would be brought in every day, and this at a drinking water catchment area for water that more than 400,000 people drink every day,” said the City Councillor Aleš Primc in his opening remarks, adding that, according to the standard, the pipes that have been installed can leak three decilitres per square metre of filled pipe, which would amount to 14,400 litres of sewage per two kilometres every day in our drinking water, and over five million litres in a whole year.
In view of the fact that the C0 sewerage channel is located in the most earthquake-prone part of the country, Primc pointed out that the public water and sewerage company VO-KA had already produced a pipe analysis in its newsletter in 1998, which showed that the pipes currently installed in the C0 channel were not earthquake-proof. “VO-KA is therefore well aware of the fact that they have installed pipes that are not earthquake-resistant, so what they have done is no longer negligence, but a deliberate endangerment of the health of the citizens of Ljubljana and all those who drink Ljubljana’s water. This is a crime,” he was critical.
Pressure on the Ministry
He went on to point out that the Ljubljana Administrative Unit’s decision from February this year that they would not proceed with any administrative procedures to issue a building permit until the court had decided whether an environmental impact assessment was necessary was still in force. “The fact that the case is still pending at the Administrative Unit does not mean that the building permit is still pending. According to my information, Zoran Janković is intensively pressing the Ministry of Natural Resources and Spatial Planning to issue a building permit. This would, of course, be 100 percent illegal, however, all the administrative procedures that have been conducted over the last twenty years on the subject of the C0 sewerage channel are 100 percent illegal.”
He said that his request to disqualify Minister Jože Novak and State Secretary Miran Gajšek from all proceedings related to the C0 sewerage channel had been rejected by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Spatial Planning. According to him, they did not dispute his arguments regarding their impartiality, but insisted that the duo did not specifically decide on administrative procedures and that they could not, therefore, be disqualified. “This is nonsense,” stressed Primc, who pointed out that the Minister and the State Secretary are the management team of the Ministry, and as such, direct all the work of the Ministry. According to Primc, the Minister authorises the administrators who make decisions, transfers administrators, and decides on their promotions. “He is involved in all the administrative procedures that take place in his ministry,” Primc insisted, adding that he had already submitted a new request for the expulsion of Bojana Mazi, who heads the Ministry’s construction department.
The hidden thefts of the Mayor of Ljubljana
Aleš Hojs, chairman of the Slovenian Democratic Party (Slovenska demokratska stranka – SDS) City Committee of Ljubljana, began his speech at the rally by expressing his satisfaction with the outcome of the recent referendum and thanked all those who had contributed in one way or another to the outcome of the said referendum. He then recalled the Mayor’s other controversial projects. According to Hojs, the Archdiocese of Ljubljana has been informed in recent days that the procedure for the construction of a garage under the central market is moving ahead, even though this project is fundamentally flawed. “Remember that the Ministry says that the Secretary of State and the Minister are not involved in the administrative procedures themselves, while it is still unknown to this day whether the lady at Minister Kumer’s office signed the dreadful decision for the C0 sewerage channel – and she is the Secretary of State. Lies upon lies in this Ministry, too.”
Hojs mentioned that last week, the Mayor signed a contract for a new construction project – namely, the Šiška Athletics Centre, which is expected to cost 89 million euros. Knowing that the Ilirija swimming pool – the contractor is, of course, the same – was built with 18 annexes for 63 million euros, Hojs noted that he conducted a mini poll on the X network, and 93 percent of the respondents said that in the end, the project will cost 130 million euros. “In fact, practically everyone in Ljubljana knows that Janković is a completely incompetent manager, that he cannot manage a single project and that these projects are mainly used for stealth theft,” Hojs said, adding that “we don’t want to have a mayor who doesn’t know whether he would run in Ljubljana or Belgrade. I advise him to be the mayor of Belgrade.”
According to Hojs, practically everything in Ljubljana is getting more expensive: from water and sewage costs to the price of kindergartens. He expressed his belief that it is right that those who educate children should also be educated, but according to Hojs, a lady and a few dedicated people thought of going to Greece to be educated, which cost 12 thousand euros. “I hope that the supervisory board, which is also indirectly controlled by Janković, will have the courage to write a few words about these trainings,” he said, urging parents to keep an eye on where their money is going. “It does matter who is in power in the city.”
Hojs was also critical of the Prime Minister’s public support expressed last week for the exodus of Slovenian companies to Croatia, adding that the recent referendum was just a pebble in a mosaic that needed to be put together by next spring. All the problems will be solved, he said, once the new government led by Janez Janša is in power.
Father Stane Bešter also addressed those gathered at the rally. He stressed the importance of the fight for clean drinking water and reminded everyone that the current government is making life miserable for private kindergartens and schools. “Let us resist this, too!”
“An important piece of news from the last few days is that the company Hidroinženiring, d.o.o. (Hydroengineering), which designed the C0 sewerage channel and prepared the documentation for the construction permits, is in the process of bankruptcy. This will help the owners of the company avoid liability for damages for their role in the dangerous and illegal C0 sewerage channel construction. This is further proof of the urgency to prevent the C0 channel from being completed and put into operation,” said Primc.
A. H.
