Who put us in fait accompli about the gas pipeline?

Sanja Naumovska

In Vodno these days, the excavators stand still, but that does not mean that the topic has lost public attention. Ecologists, but the citizens continue to follow every step taken on the ridge of the mountain. The construction of the section of the main gas pipeline for western Macedonia has been stopped, but that does not lessen the fear of how much damage will be if it continues along the same terrain.

The public is mobilized, and the main goal is to protect the park-forest from the insanity that has been going on for a decade and a half. After the whole settlement with dozens of skyscrapers settled on the bottom of the slopes of Vodno, the mountain was also stripped of the road to Sun City (Soncev Grad). The tower of the AEK and the Millennium Cross was built, as well as the cable railway, which, as much as the citizens of Skopje make it easier to go to the top of Vodno, still resulted in destroying a significant area of greenery.

There were also ideas for projects, such as ski tracks, which also threatened to destroy vegetation and disrupt the natural habitat of wildlife, but fortunately, we did not see their realization. The idea to build a pipeline along the mountain crest is the latest in a line that, according to ecologists’ calculations, will double twice as many of the above-listed projects.

And here we need to ask ourselves, would the construction of the pipeline through Vodno be such a problem, if previously all the other and not so important objects were located somewhere else, and not in the park-forest. Will the gas pipeline turn out to be a collateral damage to the fear that, if we let a further greenery disappear, will we sign a death sentence on this city?

Hence, we see clearly the urge for citizens to defend Vodno from any such idea, however warranted. And we agree, of course, that the pipeline is one of the most important infrastructure projects we currently need. We must not postpone it, on the contrary, we were supposed to have gas in every single house long ago.

The persistence of ecologists has prompted the Mayor of Skopje, Petre Shilegov, to call for a debate on which the main topic will be the route of the pipeline. Is it possible to dig in Vodno or should it start from the beginning and to consider the alternative routes on the north side of Skopje? The main debate probably should have occurred before 2016, when the construction approval was passed and the final decision was that all of the offered routes correspond only to Vodno. It is surprising that in November 2015 a public debate was opened on the project, which then predicted one main and four alternative lines of the motorway section. But none of the NGOs attended, and there was not one comment on the project.

The project was apparently well-concealed from the eyes of the public, as it appeared out of the blue, a few months ago, having already entered the construction stage and taken over financial obligations to international institutions. It is undisputed that the public has too many open questions and dilemmas, and the institutions have obligations to respond and resolve them. But the question remains whether it is not too late now to start a debate? Especially if we decide on a completely new project and route, the damage will now be between 10 and 20 million euro, and will be lost for at least five years in administrative procedures.

Perhaps, at the moment, instead of trying to measure which is more important, Vodno or the pipeline, which is more environmentally friendly or better for the citizens, we need to seek responsibility as to who put us in fait accompli, concealed the project and did not allow for debate and audit at the right time.