Through the project “Environmental response to mining expansion in Timočka Krajina” for better monitoring of air and surface water quality

Improving the monitoring of air and surface water quality is one of the goals of the project “Environmental response to mining expansion in Timočka Krajina”, implemented by the Association “Za Drinking Fountains” with partners from Bor and Zajecar, and funded by the European Union .

At the initiative of the association “Za Drinking Fountains”, the City of Zaječar recently adopted a decision on expanding its activities and introducing new members to the Working Group for monitoring the implementation of the Agreement for the protection of artesian fountains in the city. In the future, this Working Group will, in addition to the protection of artesian fountains, also deal with the development of air and surface water quality monitoring systems on the territory of the City of Zajecar.

Considering that the new members of the working group have experience in air monitoring in Bor (due to known problems with mining pollution), the Working Group believes that joint action, implementation of knowledge and concrete actions will help improving the air and surface water quality monitoring system.

Jasmina Jović Stević from the Environmental Protection Office of the City Government of Zaječar reminded that air quality in Zaječar has been monitored since 2009 within the national network, using an automatic station located in the city center. On a daily basis, citizens can check the parameters of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, and carbon monoxide on the website of the Environmental Protection Agency. However, suspended particles PM10, which contribute to the air quality in Zaječar during the winter heating season, fall into the III category, are presented on an annual basis. Therefore, we can only access data from, for example, 2019 and 2020. These data indicate that excessive air pollution with PM10 suspended particles was observed for 83 days in 2019 and a staggering 139 days in 2020, which is more than four months.

At the first meeting of the Working Group, one of the conclusions was that the City of Zaječar, with the aim of improving monitoring, should initiate a proposal to the Ministry of Environmental Protection and its Agency to install another automatic monitoring station for real-time air quality monitoring in Zaječar. As emphasized by the members from Bor, this initiative will also be supported by the Working Body for the implementation of the short-term action plan for air quality in Bor.

Association “Za Drinking Fountains”

This text was produced within the project “Environmental response to mining expansion in Timočka Krajina” funded by the European Union, and implemented by the Association “Za Drinking Fountains”, the Association of Young Researchers Bor, Civic Library “Europe” Bor and Children’s Center Zaječar. The content of the text is entirely responsibility of these associations and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union.