{"id":34006,"date":"2022-07-28T00:16:48","date_gmt":"2022-07-27T22:16:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cins.rs\/?p=34006"},"modified":"2022-08-30T12:05:20","modified_gmt":"2022-08-30T10:05:20","slug":"government-error-cost-these-people-their-home-no-one-has-been-held-accountable-yet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cins.rs\/en\/government-error-cost-these-people-their-home-no-one-has-been-held-accountable-yet\/","title":{"rendered":"Government Error Cost These People Their Home. No One Has Been Held Accountable Yet."},"content":{"rendered":"

Milojko<\/strong> and his wife Jelena<\/strong> made their way to the village the next day. The road was cracked, so they had to leave their car on a nearby hill and walk down to their house \u2013 so crooked that they could not go inside. The house that, as he says, he and his wife built from their teachers’ salaries and where they spent most of the year, was no longer their home. It was hanging, “neither here nor there”, Milojko explained while standing on the ruins of what used to be his terrace.<\/p>

“It was hard for me, I was broken, believe me.”<\/p>

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Milojko and Jelena Mandi\u0107 on the ruins of what used to be their terrace; photo: CINS<\/figcaption><\/figure>

Zaovine Lake is an artificial lake, created in order for the water to be extracted from it for the nearby pumped-storage hydroelectric plant Bajina Ba\u0161ta, but only when absolutely necessary \u2013 in cases of failures (on the power grid), power shortages or incidents affecting the country’s energy system. Once water is pumped out of the lake, it needs to be filled up again.<\/p>

The Electric Power Industry of Serbia<\/em> (EPS) abruptly withdrew a large amount of water from the lake that March, triggering the landslide in Mandi\u0107i, a geologist has concluded.<\/p>

Experts warned EPS back in 2002 that due to the danger of landslides, the water level should not be brought below 850 meters. In 2019, before this incident, Zaovine Lake was at 831.17 meters.<\/p>

An investigation carried out by the Center for Investigative Journalism of Serbia<\/em> (CINS) shows that even after three years have passed, EPS has not compensated these people for the damage incurred, nor has anyone been held accountable for the environmental damage caused. In fact, a criminal complaint lodged against EPS and its former director has been dismissed.<\/p>

Locals claim that the company keeps rapidly withdrawing water from the lake, thereby endangering those who live from it, including the lake’s wildlife.<\/p>

Sini\u0161a Jevti\u0107<\/strong> from Tara National Park<\/em>, who takes care of the lake, says that in the 40 years the lake has existed, life has sprung up there.<\/p>

“Everything around it was created in accordance with the new environment that came to life there, there are new destinations, cottages, rural tourism. When the lake\u2019s water level drops, it [this environment] loses its purpose.”<\/p>