October 11, 2019 - The Montenegrin government has sent a protest to Albania over the latest environmental accidents in the Bojana River watershed, which, according to the government, threaten the image of this prestigious tourist destination.
"Following good-neighborly policy, the Government of Montenegro, consistently insisting on the implementation of all international conventions, in constant communication with the Albanian side.
The protest of the Government of Montenegro came after the competent, at the invitation of concerned residents of Ulcinj, toured the ground and found that the corpses of dead hens, cows, and pigs were floating on the Bojana River.
The director of the Food, Veterinary, and Phytosanitary Affairs Directorate, Vesna Dakovic, who coordinated the action on the field, said on Wednesday that everything was a cross-border problem. That is, animals originating in neighboring Albania are dead; since in the broader area, there are no poultry farms on the Montenegrin side.
"It is evident that the problem is cross-border in nature. The results of the laboratory analyses of the samples showed that the poultry was not infected with any disease that could be transmitted to humans. Still, it was isolated Salmonella, which affects the poultry and from which the chickens were most likely killed," Dakovic said.
It was planned to start the action of collecting waste from water immediately. It is estimated that several days will be required to obtain this waste when visiting the upper stream of the river".
The protest was addressed to the Albanian side on the initiative of the Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Policy and Financial System, Milutin Simovic, and Minister of Sustainable Development and Tourism, Pavel Radulovic.
"Accordingly, the Montenegrin side is obliged to inform all its international partners, which will be done in an emergency official procedure," the Ministry of Sustainable Development and Tourism said in a statement.
Recall that the first incident of this kind was officially reported on September 30, 2019. On that occasion, the inspector took samples from the field and sent for analysis to determine that the quantity found had been harmlessly removed.
