The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Country Offices in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, FYR Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and UN ATSCR 1244 Kosovo developed a regional environmental Programme in locations in the mentioned Western Balkans countries/territories suffering from the legacy of polluting industries and requiring industrial renewal, environmental clean-up and new economic initiative. The aim/objective of the 3-year $15 million Western Balkans Environmental Hot Spots Programme – www.westernbalkansenvironment.net - involving 6 countries/territories and nine environmental hot spots locations is threefold: - To enhance regional cooperation in Western Balkans (by showing value added and influencing the way people perceive and act in the regional cooperation),
- To improve living conditions in communities around targeted environmental hot spots through progress in clean-up/remediation activities in selected locations (making progress and communicating it effectively to stakeholders),
- To ensure control of existing pollution and prevent similar environmental problems happening in the future through building up knowledge and capacity in the local communities and at the national level.
Most of the funding within this program is dedicated in the physical works needed to mitigate the environmental and human health impacts resulting directly and indirectly from industrial and mining activities. Environmental monitoring is a critical component in evaluating such works. The establishment of a water and/or air pollution monitoring regime and system – a fundamental responsibility of the hotspot owner is a common requirement for all pilot or demonstration projects within the program, albeit one that is to be elaborated in a project specific manner for each site. In the absence of a (‘minimal’) water and/or air monitoring regime and system, it would not be possible to assess the effectiveness of the concerned clean-up activity. Providing opportunities to improve environmental monitoring skill sets across the involved countries/territories and program sites is not only important in allowing the physical works undertaken to mitigate the problem to be assessed, but is also important component that can be used for institutional strengthening and capacity building Strengthen capacity for improving environmental management abilities within the region. Effective environmental monitoring is essential to understanding, managing, and protecting environmental and human health in Montenegro. Monitoring is a key factor to improving the quality of the decision-making that will maintain sustainable ecosystems, protect human health, and support a healthy economy. Environmental monitoring is a tool used to describe the processes and activities that need to take place to characterize and monitor the quality of the environment. Environmental monitoring is used in the preparation of environmental impact assessments, as well as in many circumstances in which human activities carry a risk of harmful effects on the natural environment. It is commonly included as a requirement in laws and regulations, first, for compliance assessment, and second, for the environmental reporting of industrial emissions. To determine the risk the measurement is usually directed toward those elements likely to exceed the accepted limit values and which therefore represent the main risk to human and environmental health. The data produced after the lab analysis has to be compared against the relevant limit values for each media and against relevant legal framework (for Europe the EU Directives), or in other relevant standards (WHO or other). In addition to limit values, there are also warning thresholds and margin of tolerance which should trigger further investigations. Montenegro national component: Historically mining operations in the area of Mojkovac have been undertaken for many centuries with extraction of silver having occurred since ca. 1270. However intensive mining operations were limited to the period from 1976 to 1991 at the Lead and Zinc Mine of ‘Brskovo’ situated just above the town of Mojkovac itself. As a result of these past operations, with management decisions focused on direct investments toward other priorities, on industrialization without taking adequate environmental safeguards, not clearly allocated and implemented environmental management responsibilities and the lack of a formal mine closure process led to creation of an environmental hot spot. Taking in consideration that the area in which these mining activities took place is situated between two national parks (Biogradsko Lake and Durmitor) and the UNESCO protected River Tara the identified problems the mining activities have international and cross border consequences. The first problem concerns the tailing mine impoundment (TMI) formed in the area between right river bank of Tara and western side of urban zones of Mojkovac which received mine process wastes from the mineral processing plant on the towns outskirts. The TMI occupies an area of 19 ha and contains approximately 2 million m3 of disposed tailing waste materials from an estimated total of 2.600.000 t of tailings produced from Brskovo mine ore. The Project to remediate the TMI, named Remediation and recultivatioin of the Mojkovac lead and zinc tailings mine impoundment, was prepared by the faculty of Civil Engineering Podgorica and associated institutions in 2004. Project implementation started in 2005 and UNDP CO Montenegro is supporting this project through the UNDP regional “Western Balkans Environmental Programme” financed by the Netherlands government. This project has now entered its final phase and it is planned that final works will take place by the end of 2010. The value of this project exceeds 10 000 000,00 € and represents significant financial and technical effort for Montenegro and Mojkovac Municipality. Objective of the Assignment: The overall objective of this assignment is to develop a standardised environmental monitoring plan for the Mojkovac rehabilitation site in concert with the responsible authorities, to train staff in accordance with best practice for environmental monitoring relevant to the regulatory requirements and to over site the environmental monitoring in accordance with the plan to ensure quality control and assurance is adhered to. In addition to this is a task to produce ToRs for identifying and categorising other “hotspot: sites to link this project with future interventions. |