e-Magazine

Sustainable development

Croatia - full of life! A world-known eye-catching slogan that lures millions of tourists during summertime. Usually, travel agencies, like any other destination, show only the most beautiful places. Expensive luxuries also, because we earn a living from overpricing. For example, visiting the blue cave, riding on a sailship eating fancy dinner with live music, and enjoying the breathtaking views of a sunset. If I were to continue the beauties of Croatia, this article would become another boring advertisement of what Croatia has to offer. Therefore I will commit to my original plan. So let's change the title:

Croatia - full of trash 

The fact that Croatians advertise the Adriatic sea as a gem and it is full of plastic and trash is disgusting. The worst part is that the more they advertise it the more polluted it will be. The main reason why Adriatic is not as clean as before is mass tourism. Many people come and go. With those high numbers of visitors the count of trash multiples by that number. A lot of foreigners come from countries where littering is not that much of a deal and they continue to do the same here - meaning they have no respect whatsoever for our country. With that being said, we can all agree that the Croatian government has a poor system of protecting nature. Because protecting nature is not a priority for our government officials. We will just continue being in the same spot as long as politicians think that bringing the euro into the country is the solution to most of its problems. That is another whole story about Croatia falling more into economical misery. After the war in Croatia, there have been many questions about waste management. There have been also a ton of talks, initiatives, and "projects" but if you ask me those were all empty words. The war happened in 1991 and the first waste management center was built after 2010. Almost 20 years have passed with Croatia having no trash disposal system. Of course, it had a great impact on future development. I remember it was 2015 when they were burning trash near my hometown. Let me tell you, the stench made your eyes water. The air was green and greasy-looking for a week. The worst part is, it was summertime. Summer in Croatia is hard as it is, but dealing with that on top of burning temperature is unbearable. I think is very clear that the next problem is light pollution. In a city like Zagreb, you can't see the nightsky meaning the artificial light is so overused that stars look extinguished or you cant see them at all. Split is one of the most visited cities that has half the light pollution as Zagreb. There are still some beaches and places that don't have too much unnecessary fake light usage. Hopefully, it stays like that. If you ask any person living in their own house what is the thing they hate the most, their answer would probably be the same. Sewage. Infrastructure is almost nonexistent. Meaning sewerage and drainage systems are poorly made in Croatia. We strive to have accessible networks but not wastewater treatment systems, both municipal and industrial. This indicates that Croatia does not treat water as an extremely important strategic resource. If our government could see potential in our water, we could boost our economy. This just makes another point in this article. Irresponsible behavior towards the water. Aggressive industry jobs are expensive and generally not needed are making our waters suffer. Doing illegal graveling -taking natural gravel ( approximately 0.5 mm to 20 mm ) from protected locations and turning it into mass sand production and polluting water while doing that is also what makes our waters suffer. The list goes on and on. It is very heartbreaking to see your country change for the worse in front of your eyes. I still remember thick green coats all around Split before it was cut down. We should be evolving not devolving. The government is doing its best to pretend to not see actual problems that in the next 6 years will be a major red flag. People are also only thinking about how to make more income while exploiting and using our beautiful nature and sources recklessly. We should be protecting not exposing.