The World Environment Day was marked in Gračanica today with an art workshop, tree and flowers planting, as well as lectures at schools. During the visit of the field and by participating in the activities, the Mayor of Gračanica municipality, Srđan Popović said that we had to protect our environment both collectively and individually.
This year, the Municipality of Gračanica is marking the World Environment Day with a series of activities. Mayor of Gračanica municipality, Srđan Popović, visited the elementary school “Kralj Milutin” in Gračanica first, where mentor Maja Todić organized an art workshop on environmental protection for the senior pupils.
Popović then visited the elementary school “Knez Lazar” in Donja Gušterica where he attended a lecture on the role and significance of individuals in the preservation of the environment. After that, he symbolically planted a tree in the yard of the elementary school in Lepina and said that by such activities, the local self-government aimed to raise awareness among children and youth about the importance of protecting the environment.
“The Municipality celebrates this day every year, and every year we are introducing new activities within the marking. By these activities, we are trying to point out the problems facing the municipality when it comes to environmental protection and we are happy to see that all this gives positive results”, Popović said.
He states that Gračanica municipality is still faced with problems when it comes to environmental protection and that the river in Laplje Selo is one of the ones which solution is currently under way.
“The pollution of the river in Laplje Selo is one of the biggest problems. We are working on the solution, but the municipality is not in a position to resolve this issue on its own, and it is therefore necessary to involve the institutions from the central level. We are encouraged by the fact that the OSCE has been involved in this issue and that it was promised that a conference on environmental protection and rehabilitation of the rivers in Gračanica municipality will soon be organized”, stressed the Mayor of Gračanica municipality, Srđan Popović.
Principal of the Primary School in Lepina, Zorica Talić, thanked the Municipality of Gračanica for organizing the marking of the Environment Day.
“Today we planted a tree that we will nourish. As it grows, our children will grow too, and I’m very happy because we got an oxygen factory more”, said Talić.
Director of the municipal Department of Urbanism and Environmental Protection reminded that besides the river, the wastewaters and tailings presented great problem in the environment protection of the municipality.
“Unfortunately, we are powerless to solve these two big problems, but it is necessary for the competent ministry to be involved in solving the problems, primarily to provide investments for wastewater treatment, because with our municipal budget, we would not be able to cover the water treatment plant in one place, let alone the whole municipality. We are trying to work on the removal of wild dumps, maintenance of public spaces and parks and cleaning of the river beds”, Jovanović said.
Today, during the visit of the field, the Mayor of Gračanica municipality, Srđan Popović, gave appreciation letters to the elementary schools in Lepina and Donja Gušterica for their contribution to the preservation of the environment. The letter of thanks were also given to Radio Television of Gračanica and the second program of Radio Television of Kosovo for media contribution to environmental protection.
Except Gračanica, Lepina and Donja Gušterica, the World Environment Day was also marked in Laplje Selo by planting trees and flowers. The Environment Day was also marked by the children of the preschool institution “Đurđevak”.
