Last year, a report came to the Green Phone about the filling of the coast and sea on Krknjaši. Although the municipal police have implemented certain measures against the perpetrators, locals informed us that the material stayed at the coast until the sea just carried it away.
Unfortunately, the story doesn’t end there. We received a notice from the Citizens’ Initiative for the Development of the Island of Drvenik Veli – Zirona.org in which they point out that this year the concession approval of the hospitality facility on Krknjaši will be prolonged. The filling of the plateau near the sea has already begun.
We transfer their note:
“Don’t throw a pebble, especially a stone into the sea, God forbid!”
For all of us who have grown to love our island of Drvenik Veli since early childhood and spent many days on it from childhood to the present day and who are active in the citizens’ initiative Zirona.org, one of first life’s lessons was: Don’t throw a pebble, especially a stone into the sea, God forbid!. These voices of our ancestors still resonate within our soul and consciousness, and we convey the same to our children and those who did not have such ancestors.
Raised with deep respect for the sea, coast, underwater world and nature in general, we wonder how it is even possible that in the bay of Krknjaši, as well as along our coast, without limitation there is devastation and filling with inadequate material, without an Environmental Impact Assessment (OPUO) and without adequate respond to it from the competent institutions.
Again this year, at the beginning of the season, on the island of Drvenik Veli part of the Krknjaši bay coast is filled with gravel.
It is a bay of extraordinary beauty, with a turquoise sea and an archipelago of small islets, recognized by many travel agencies, portals, media and visitors, which they call the “Blue Lagoon”.
The bay belongs to the ecological network Natura 2000 EU Water Framework, which aims to protect Posidonia and Pinna nobilis. In addition, there is also loacated an archaeological site that represents a cultural heritage.
Last year the coast, including scrapes, and the underwater world along the hospitality facility, the former Beach Bar today Mali Škoja, with aim to increase the beach area was filled with 150 tons of gravel! With this filling, the coastline moved towards the sea and the distance from drywall to the sea increased from about 60 cm to approximately 300 to 400 cm!
During the winter, gravel from the coast is pulled into the sea by the wind and waves, thus buries the habitat of marine organisms more and more. Today, the naked eye can no longer see šage, fish or pinna nobilis and the negative impacts are certainly far more visible, for which it would be necessary to do a detailed expert analysis.
Despite numerous reports to the competent institutions and media attention last year, today the same scenario is repeating, and the coast is being re-filled with a large amount of gravel.
How is this possible in a legal state?
It is obvious that the competent institutions do not have adequate response and are not able to purposefully and effectively protect the common good and the interests of all of us.
We hope that using the new Maritime Good and Seaports Act will finally stop the practice of destroying the common good for personal profit which, moreover, could be achieved even without destroying nature, with the closed eyes of local self-government units and competent state institutions to blatant violations of the law, shifting responsibility and the practice of waiting for the public interest to pass in order to proceed seamlessly with identical, harmful treatment.
The Association Sunce provides support to associations and citizens’ initiatives for environmental protection in the Republic of Croatia, which want their voices to be heard and their opinions taken into account, through the project Preserving the Adriatic Sea Ecosystems by Active Participation of CitizenS – SEAS.
The SEAS project is implemented with the financial support of Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway within the European Economic Area and Norwegian grants, and our project partners are also WWF Adria, The Green Istria Association, Urbanex d.o.o. and the University of South-Eastern Norway (USN).
