EUR 21 million provided for regional landfill in Subotica - First tenders this year, construction to begin by end-2014

A total of EUR 21 million has been provided to build a regional landfill for seven municipalities in the north of Serbia. If everything goes as planned, this regional waste management system is expected to be put into operation by the end of 2017.

- Funding is provided for the construction of a landfill as well as all accompanying facilities within the regional waste management system. The Serbian government has contributed EUR 4 million, while EUR 17 million have come from IPA funds. Serbia will not manage this money alone, given that tenders will be conducted by the EU Delegation to Serbia - Andrea Kikic, director of the company Regionalna Deponija (Regional Landfill) Subotica, said in a talk with eKapija.

In early February the EU Delegation to Serbia published on its website a tender notice for the construction of a regional waste management center for the Subotica region.

As it was announced, the work includes the construction of landfill body, separation plant, composting plant, roads, wastewater treatment plant, as well as the procurement of necessary equipment for the landfill.

Our interlocutor stresses that a meeting with the EU Delegation will be held in March, when all details related to the announcement of tenders and landfill construction will be unveiled.

- In late December 2012 the EU Integration Office and the EU Delegation to Serbia signed an agreement, according to which the tender procedure should be finished in two years and landfill construction should take three years to complete. Bids for the construction of a sanitary landfill and a composting plant will be invited first because they take most time to finish, while collection centers in each municipality will be the last facilities to work on – says the director of Regionalna Deponija.

Kikic adds that she hopes that the whole procedure will go much faster, that is, that the contractor will be selected and commence the work as early as next year.

Construction of a regional landfill is of great importance to Subotica because there are 70 minor and major illegal landfills in that city and its surroundings, and the citizens annually throw away about 80,000 tonnes of trash. That is a huge amount of garbage, which is why local authorities in Subotica launched the design of a project in 2007 to build a regional landfill in line with EU standards in cooperation with the municipalities of Senta, Coka, Kanjiza, Mali Idjos, Backa Topola and Novi Knezevac. According to the 2002 Census, that region has the population of 280,000.

Subotica's regional landfill will be built on a 46-hectare land between Bikovo and Orom. Preliminary designs have been developed by Novi Sad-based Hidrozavod DTD.

Waste will be collected in cooperation with public utility companies in these municipalities and transported to a neighborhood near Subotica, where this facility will be situated, for further treatment - separation, recycling and safe disposal.

According to announcements, this means that local inhabitants will have to change their habits and start classifying garbage at their home, while public utility companies will need to adapt their activities in aforementioned municipalities to the new waste management system.

S.O.