According to the latest study conducted by the National Alliance for Local Economic Development (NALED), Serbia needs to invest 4.2 billion euros in sewage systems and 1.3 billion euros in wastewater treatment facilities. The study estimates that there are around three million septic tanks in Serbia, and inadequate cleaning and neglect can have dangerous and long-lasting consequences for the environment.
The Ministry of Environmental Protection’s budget in 2023 allocated ten times more funds for subsidies to purchase electric vehicles than for wastewater treatment, as reminded by the National Alliance for Local Economic Development (NALED).
Nevertheless, Serbia is at the bottom of the list of European countries, with only 14.7% of wastewater treated (with at least secondary treatment) in its wastewater facilities.
Referring to Eurostat data, NALED has included this statistic as one of the starting points in its new Diagnostic Study on the State of Wastewater Management in Serbia. According to their statement, for the first time, with the support of the expert team from Dvoper company, all data on the state and plans of water management have been gathered in one place.
Legislation related to the water directive is one of the most demanding packages for countries in the process of joining the European bloc. “Besides significant investments, the complexity of this issue is also influenced by the fact that the responsibility for wastewater is divided among several ministries. NALED’s study represents the most comprehensive analysis of this problem conducted so far,” the statement reads.
“According to the current regulation, legal entities will have to address the issue of wastewater within the next two years, while local self-governments have been given an excessively long deadline until 2040. As part of the study, we have created a map showing that there are 54 wastewater treatment plants in Serbia, of which 12 are not functioning at all, and the average age of all plants is 22 years,” said Slobodan Krstović, Director for Sustainable Development at NALED.
As a reminder, newer facilities are present in Bačka Topola, Leskovac, Kruševac, Vranje, Raška, Šabac, and they can serve as exemplary cases for what awaits us in the future.
“However, Krstović emphasizes that the construction of treatment facilities must be preceded by the construction of a sewage network, to which only 67% of the population is connected. This means that a third of households still use septic tanks as the only means of wastewater disposal.
‘We have a long way ahead of us, which is why we propose an improvement in the coordination of all participants in the process of designing and constructing sewage networks and wastewater treatment facilities starting this year. We also suggest establishing a Training Center for personnel management and maintenance of the large number of planned facilities,’ NALED adds.”
