The organization KOD, within the initiative 100,000 Trees is currently watering trees that they planted at the end of 2018 and early this year.
Nina Pantovic, a member of the KOD Organization, says trees are irrigated once a week.
"1.334 trees have been planted so far, and in autumn we continue with the planting campaign," said KOD.
"In addition to watering and preparing for future activities, we also use additional communication with citizens - which would serve to strengthen and further implement the initiative by 100.000 trees. We organized patrols for irrigation, mainly consisting of tenants in the street where trees are planted and members from KOD organization. We note that the maintenance of the landscape in Podgorica is the liability of the company “Zelenilo” Podgorica. We have officially contacted “Zelenilo” with the requirement to irrigate these trees as part of their regular activities, and in the letter, we have indicated the locations of those recently planted. As we haven’t received any feedback from this company, and after seeing for ourselves that these are not being watered, we started with weekly watering of the trees. The first watering was organized on June 20, and currently the fifth in a row is being carried out," says Pantovic.
Nina Pantovic (Photo: Organizacija KOD)
She points out that the water is taken mostly from the tenants, because there are no public fountains on most locations in the city, and a large number of existing ones is not in function.
"For now, most of the trees are growing. The total number of trees that are not growing properly is less than 3%, which is below the projected loss of trees after the first planting season - which is due to drought due to the poor condition of the particular seedlings," says Pantovic.
In addition to the usual summer drought and providing enough water, the biggest issue for the plants’ growth is the poor quality of the land.
"During the construction of residential and commercial buildings, green areas are covered with construction waste. Thus, when planting the trees, we find layers of concrete, brick, Styrofoam and plastics up to one meter of thickness. This layer of waste is covered with a layer of 10 to 20 cm of fertile soil that is not enough even for grass vegetation, let alone for trees. This fertile land is brought from another site. By reducing the impact of concrete in one place, we reduce the value and fertility of the other. So little is needed for everything to be preserved and green, but some greed is swallowing what was last left to us. This is caused by the irresponsible performance of construction works, irresponsible control and approval for use of facilities," says the member of the Organization KOD.
Pantovic points out that due to such circumstances they planted species that are least demanding in terms of humidity and soil quality, for example, the European nettle tree.
"Regardless of the predisposition of the tree species, effort must be made during the first two years to make the tree become self-sufficient. Therefore, anyone who wants to contribute to the initiative of 100,000 trees can apply to the KOD Organization so that as many green trees as possible will be planted before the first autumn rain. Of course, the trees that have not grown will be restored, because we are persistent in the effort to get as many trees as possible," says Pantovic.
Until the automatic irrigation system is established in the cities where the Mediterranean climate is present, additional efforts will be required for the implementation of soft landscaping in our urban zones."Therefore, " Zelenilo "needs to justify its name, not to justify its (ir) responsibility due to the bad weather.
The situation with regard to the maintenance and arrangement of the landscape in the capital city is revealed by the following data: "Zelenilo" Podgorica in 2015 had about 115,000 euros of costs for the procurement of goods, raw materials and supplies for managing green areas, while about 966,000 euros were spent on salaries - this ration speaks for itself. Such a figure for salaries is not controversial - it is the money that belongs to employees only that the same employees should be allowed to carry out the jobs for which they are paid - therefore, investments in maintaining green areas must be much higher," Pantovic said.
Text by Vijesti online, on July 24th, 2019, read more at Vijesti
