09.06.2019.
Together with more than 200 divers from Croatia and Slovenia, Dubravko Ponoš, the director of the Fund, was participating in the action of removing underwater waste in Savudrija Bay. The eco-intervention was organised under the Cleaning Without Borders project, and the locations cleaned included Savudrija Bay and Piran port. The participants in the action pointed out that waste had no nationality, and that the countries had to cooperate in preserving the sea and the undersea.
“We have to look after this magnificent sea for the future generations, and we have to treat it responsibly. Unfortunately, microplastics was found in as many as 72 % of samples of drinking water in Europe, and the situation in the seas is even worse,” said director Ponoš. Unusual underwater catch the divers fished out in Savudrija Bay confirmed these words. Some of the catch included, among other things, a truck tyre, construction waste, plastic bottles, and yogurt cups.
State secretary at the Ministry of Environment and Energy Mario Šiljeg pointed out that 80% of waste in the sea came from the land, and the majority of that waste was plastic. “Accordingly, it is essential to educate people, especially the young, in order to reduce the quantities of waste in the Adriatic,” said Šiljeg.
Đenio Zadković, the mayor of Piran, said that goodwill of the people in the area was evident during the action Cleaning Without Borders. Vili Bassanese, the mayor of Umag, agreed with his counterpart from Piran, adding that the border was not just a line dividing two countries, but that it was also highlighting the wealth of differences.
“The main goal of the ecological action Cleaning Without Borders, apart from removing the waste from the sea, is to establish liaisons between the Croatian and Slovenian divers, and to raise awareness of children and the young about the importance of conservation of the sea and nature. Thus, the 4th International Children’s Diving Eco Patrol joined the action. As part of this patrol, under the guidance of a diving instructor, the children helped clean the sea along the coast at the camp Veli Jože. On Saturday, a workshop organised by the Environmental Protection and Energy Efficiency Fund was held for the children, where they learned how to properly sort the waste,” told Andreja Vedrina from the company Promocija ronjenja that organised the action. Co-organisers include the Croatian Disabled Homeland War Veterans’ Diving Club Nemo-Adriatic, Volunteer fire-fighting associationPiran, Zagreb Holding and its subsidiary Vladimir Nazor.
Egon Štibilj, the Piran Civil Defence commander, concluded: “All of us who live by the sea are very much aware of what the sea gives and means to us; we do not want to witness the day it washes ashore the waste we throw in today. To all those who do this, we wish to say – waste must not be discarded into the sea.”
