Greens: Stop The Concreting Of The Dalmatian Coast

Enviromental groups in Dalmatia on Croatia’s Adriatic coast, want to put a stop to construction projects and halt what they say is further devastation of the countries picturesque coast.

Zelena Akcija (Green Action) demands strategic environmental assessment to be carried out on new construction projects on vacant areas that they say have been included in the regional spatial plan of the Split-Dalmatia county under the guise of tourism development.

“Despite the obvious decline in population over the last 20 years, changes in the Spatial Plan envisage a sudden population growth in the next few years, in order to justify the need for new construction. Specifically, it suggests that from 2011-2015 there will be population growth of 24 percent in the Split-Dalmatia county. Such obvious exaggerations, and without any arguments show that to a large extent an unprofessional and arbitrary change to the Spatial Plan,” said Zelena Akcija.

The group says that it is a problem that strategic environmental assessment is not being undertaken on projects. An example of this they say is the plan to build 13 golf courses in the county, including four on the islands of Solta and Brac.

“It is clear that the courses, especially on the islands, will cause so many problems in the area of drinking water supply, as was the case this summer in Istria. Building such a large number of golf courses shows a lack of ideas in space management, and reduces the potential for long-term development of agriculture and animal husbandry,” they said.

 Zelena Akcija also added that on the island of Vis, plans to build a “tourist zone” with a 2,050 bed capacity, was a massive burden on a small island that only had a population of 3,000 people, reported Slobodna Dalmacija.