Several hundred activists and citizens gathered in front of the Chinese plastic processing factory FeitianSuye in the village of Perlez, Banat, to protest against its reopening and its negative impact on the environment.
Citizens and activists from various environmental organizations said that the factory should be closed immediately because life in Perlez had become ‘unbearable’.
The representative of the environmental association Belorepan, Teodora Gavran, said during the protest that she will present four demands to the authorities and that if they are not met within four days, a legal team will be set up and all entrances to the factory will be blocked.
“We demand that the factory be closed until filters are placed on the chimneys and until polluted water is no longer discharged into the irrigation canal. Secondly, we demand an explanation as to why there was no notice on the factory’s gates of its temporary closure. There is an urgent need to clean the canal so that local farmers can use it for irrigation. We don’t care who works there and who the investor is, we care who is responsible for allowing the factory to be built here,” she said.
The singer of the iconic Serbian music group, Partibrejkers, Zoran Kostić Cane, told the protesters that they must be united because no-one will solve their problems but themselves. “Nature’s park Carska Bara will become just a pond (if the factory reopens). The white herons will turn black. Do not complain later when your children accuse you of leaving them in a legacy a life like this. Don’t get tired fighting, because this is the only way to change something,” said Kostić.
After the protest, citizens and activists, together with locals, dug out large pieces of plastic and metal on land behind the factory, which were illegally buried by the factory workers. Teodora Gavran informed those present that she would put all the collected waste into bags and leave them in front of the building of the municipality of Zrenjanin.
(N1, 13.06.2021)
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