ZAGREB, March 31, 2018 – Social Democratic Party (SDP) president Davor Bernardić on Saturday visited the area of an ecological incident and a water factory in Slavonski Brod, saying “the government’s inaction is endangering the lives of the people of Slavonski Brod.”
“I am here today because citizens have been fighting for clean air for the past nine years. Three ministers from HDZ governments were here in the past two years… President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović was here too, yet the problem remains. The Croatian government’s inaction has started endangering people’s lives. This water not only isn’t for drinking, this water is harmful for health. Together with polluted air, this is a cause of grave illnesses, unfortunately,” he said.
Bernardić called on the government to use every option to resolve the problem as soon as possible. “The refinery should be modernised or shut down. But one can’t let the people of Slavonski Brod get poisoned with water and air and be second class citizens,” he said, referring to the oil refinery in Bosanski Brod, a town in Bosnia and Herzegovina across the Sava river that has been causing air pollution in Slavonski Brod for years.
Earlier this week, it was established that the water the inhabitants of Slavonski Brod and the surrounding municipalities get from the local water system is polluted with hydrocarbons and cannot be used even after being boiled. Mayor Mirko Duspara has linked the water pollution to an ecological incident which occurred on Wednesday during the testing of a pipeline between the Bosanski Brod refinery and the Slobodnica location, when oil products leaked out.
