As part of the project ‘Strengthening cross-border cooperation in reducing the amount and impact of plastic waste in the Adriatic and Ionian rivers’, the acronym ‘TETHYS4ADRION’, a working meeting with representatives of local government from the Neretva Valley was held yesterday at the town of Metković.
After the introductory words of Mayor Dalibor Milan and the project manager Lara Šiljeg, the participants were presented with more about the project and the activities that will be carried out, by Dr. Dubravka Bojanić-Varezić and Dr. Pero Tutman from the Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries Split. The project team was presented, consisting of Sanda Tomić, Head of the department for communal affairs, spatial planning, economy and EU funds, and Ana-Marija Jelčić, Senior Expert for the preparation and implementation of EU projects, in the function of Head of Communication and Visibility. After the meeting with the representatives of the local self-government units, the same meeting was held with the representatives of the associations that will be involved in the project activities.
The meeting was attended by representatives of local self-government units and utility companies from the Neretva Valley, in particular representatives of the City of Opuzen; Mayor Ivan Mataga, Head Magdalena Krvavac and Director of the utility company Čistoća Opuzen Mario Milošević, Mayor of the Municipality of Zazablje Maja Vrnoga, representative of the Municipality of Slivno; Head Zorica Šešelj and Director of the utility company Komunalac Slivno Ivana Mađor and Director of the utility company Čistoća Metković Tomislav Jakić.
Incidentally, the town of Metković is involved in the implementation of the ‘TETHYS4ADRION’ project. It is a project that focuses on the connection between land, rivers and sea about plastic pollution in the countries of the Adriatic-Ionian region (Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenia, Italy, Montenegro, Albania and Greece). Indeed, climate change and plastic pollution are the biggest global environmental problems, and rivers are the main pathways connecting terrestrial waste sources with the coastal and marine environment. As the Neretva River basin in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina is an example of an area under high anthropogenic pressure, it was selected as a site for the implementation of pilot activities aimed at laying the foundations for cross-border cooperation (the towns of Metković and Čapljina), build a community of experts in the region that will ensure the sustainability and capitalization of project results, and harmonize monitoring protocols and methods for sampling waste in rivers and its transport to the sea to ensure consistency and efficiency in solving problems.
Special attention will therefore be paid to the pilot activities of cross-border cooperation to identify and map the area of waste origin, as well as the fate of waste in the river (on the surface, banks and bottom, and at the mouth of the Neretva), including the presence and origin of microplastics on the surface, in the water column and at the bottom. Also planned are the organization of environmental actions to remove waste from the retention area, raising general environmental awareness in the local community through volunteer programs of environmental associations and diving clubs, and networking of key stakeholders in the field of rivers and ecological activities in the region.
The ‘TETHYS4ADRION’ project was proposed and designed in cooperation with the Croatian partners – the Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries from Split and the City of Metković. The leading partner of the project is the National Institute of Chemistry from Ljubljana, Slovenia, while the other partners are: ISPRA – Italian Institute for Environmental Protection and Research from Italy, the Mediterranean Information Office for Environment, Culture and Sustainable Development (MIO-ECSDE) and the Hellenic Center for Marine Research from Greece, the Institute of Marine Biology of the College of Montenegro, the Water Institute of the Republic of Slovenia, the University of Tirana, Albania, and the City of Capljina, Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is a project of the INTERREG IPA Adrion program under the program priority Supporting a greener and more climate-resistant Adriatic-Ionian region.
Trajanje projekta je 36 mjeseci, a ukupna vrijednost 1.712.579,60 €.
