The World Bank recommends that Montenegro build its landfill

The World Bank recommends Montenegro export to Belgium or build its own landfill

• Ecologistas en Acción, together with the other members of the Commission for the Closure of the Landfill Now, has had access to the World Bank report for the restructuring of the Montenegrin industrial waste cleaning project that was investigated in the port of Seville.
• After learning of the citizens' opposition to importing and burying 53,000 more tons of toxic waste in Nerva, the World Bank extends the execution period to Montenegro for one year, but with different alternatives to export to Spain.

On June 30, 2022, the World Bank published a report that includes the status of the project to clean up contaminated sites in Montenegro. This project has financing of 60 million dollars, which includes the Bijela shipyard and industrial waste management.

The document refers to the 110,000 tons of contaminated sand and soil that Andalusia intended to import for final burial in Nerva (Huelva). It states that the Spanish authorities suspended import permits for more Bijela waste due to violations of EC regulations for the shipment of contaminated soil.

According to the report, Spain and Montenegro agreed that the possibility of resuming exports of 53,000 tons of contaminated soil, which the Balkan country still wants to export to our country, has become unlikely. He justifies this decision largely on the opposition in the communities near the place where the waste materials were sent.

The people of Nervi, with their mayor at the forefront supported by the other mayors of the Mining Basin of Huelva, had the participation of the citizens of Huelva and Seville and numerous groups from various fields, when they raised their voice against and demonstrated at the doors of the Parliament of Andalusia with the help of the Commission for the Closure of the Landfill Now. The alarm was raised when it was learned that these 53,000 tons of toxic waste were going to continue being transported from more than 3,500 kilometers away, by boat through Doñana, entering through the Guadalquivir River to the city of Seville and, from the Andalusian capital , by road to Nerva to be definitively buried there.

Ecologists in Action is pleased to confirm that citizen mobilization, along with other clearance actions, has been a fundamental pillar for the decision not to import 53,000 more tons of hazardous waste from Montenegro, which will not come to this Nerva landfill. It is good news to know that social action has its effect, although normally citizens themselves are not informed of these achievements.

For this reason, the environmental organization invites the population to continue demanding that their territory and future be returned to them by closing the toxic Nerva landfill. Its activity and facilities constitute such a threat to the entire Andalusian territory that the waste travels through it on its journey to its burial. It must be emphasized that it poses a risk to people's health and the environment in the capital of Seville, where waste is unloaded in the port, and especially in Nerva, where it is buried in perpetuity 700 meters from the town.

Juan Romero, spokesperson for Ecologistas en Acción, has declared: “This waste marketing business and its facilities have demonstrated, during its 25 years of operation, that it constitutes a shame for Andalusia and Spain, while an area of sacrifice, something that hardly any other European country would consent to.”