Green Action Concluded the Green Phone for Central Croatia Project

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The “Greene Phone for Central Croatia” project, which was declared officially concluded by Green Action (Zelena Akcija) environmental association on July 19, 2012, solved 70 percent of environmental problems reported by the citizens of the five disctricts covered by the project – the City of Zagreb, Zagreb District, Sisak-Moslavina District, Bjelovar-Bilogora District and Krapina-Zagorje District – in the period of 123 months of the project duration. The project was financed by the Ministry of Environmental Protection of the Republic of Croatia.

Green phone (Photo Pen Waggener)

Green Action said, at the presentation of results, that it was much easier and quicker to solve reported problems with disposal of waste paper from offices, kindergartens, schools and institutions, or reports related to disposal of old household appliances and electronic devices.

„Lamentably, some reports are still being processed. That is especially the case with reports on pollution incidents involving major corporations, such as the pollution of Gorjak stream by Pliva pharmaceutical company, or INA which burns ethan gas in its facility in Ivanić-grad“, Green Action says.

The association lists the case of possible favours given to investors by Zagreb City Office of Spatial Planning and Development, which issued a permit to build power substation in Jelenovac Forrest Park, while there are suspicions that the substation is built to serve residential buildings in Jelenovački potok street.

Under the auspices of the project, which was implemented from July 1, 2011 to June 30, 2012, two Bulletins were published with statistics of received reports divided into 19 categories and analysis of reported problems. Also, an electronic database was created, which is accessible and can be updated online.

„In addition, we educated the citizens about the competent institutions they can approach to resolve environmental problems, thus increase citizens' participation in decision-making processes“, Green Action says.

The project also included an analysis of communication between competent institutions, citizens and the Green Phone. In the 12 months of implementation of the project, in addition to regular communication over telephone, Green Action presented 171 petitions and requests to competent institituins and received 112 responses.

The association is satisfied with the communication with the Environmental Protection Inspectorate, but not with the communication established with other state institutions and public enterprises. It notes the examples of Inspectorate of Civil Construction which responded to seven of the 20 petitions, and the Inspectorate of Urban Planning and Development which didn't respond to any of the nine petitions filed.

The Green Phone will continue to offer services to the citizens and receive their reports about environmental problems at the phone number 01/481 2225. (Source: Zelena akcija)