On Monday, at a picket organized by the Pagiria village community “Medeina” near the Ministry of Economy and Innovation (EIM), protesters held placards with the words “No compromises!” Everyone is equal before the law – both the government, Homanit, and all citizens of Lithuania”, “Minister of the Environment, don’t leave Vilnius residents without water!”, “Formaldehyde is a cause of cancer. “Homanit plans to emit 200 kg of formaldehyde per day”, “I care about the water my family will drink”.
The picket was organized at the same time as a meeting between EIM, “Homanit Lietuva”, Ministry of Environment, Environmental Protection Agency, Vilnius District Municipality and representatives of the Pagiri community is taking place in the mentioned ministry.
“Medeinas” representative Rūta Miliauskienė, who escorted the community representatives to the meeting with the representatives of the institutions, emphasized that she expects the officials to take responsibility for, in her opinion, the illegal reduction of the territory of the watering place. According to the representative of the community, the factory currently standing in Pagiriai, which still awaits inspections of pollution procedures before the start of operations, was built without consulting the community.
“We would like to remind officials that they must obey the law. What has already happened is that the factory is standing, the pollution of which will reach really high numbers, so they just have to take responsibility and correct their mistakes,” a representative of the community told reporters during the picket.
After more than 30 residents of Pagirii gathered at Monday’s picket, the representative of the community does not rule out that if “Medeinas” is not satisfied with the position of the institutions after the meeting, the pickets will continue to be organized. R. Miliauskienė singled out the officials’ recognition that the factory was built “in the wrong place” as a satisfactory position.
According to R. Miliauskienė, the letter sent to the Ministry of Environment, EIM, members of the Seimas and other state institutions on August 14 with a request to stop the operation of the factory in Pagiriai was signed by more than 2 thousand. population.
“Our educational institutions are 500 meters from the factory – imagine a kindergarten 500 meters away, a school 500 meters away. Our children and grandchildren will go there. (…) We don’t want such violations to remain there somewhere in the shadows. This is bad. We don’t want to have that factory in the middle of the Pagiria settlement, where over 8,000 people live around. residents”, assured R. Miliauskienė.
MP Beata Pietkiewicz, who belongs to the Regional faction of the Seimas, came to support the protesters on Monday. According to the politician elected in this district, the community of Pagiria missed communication both from “Homanit” and from the responsible ministries.
“What has been done does not serve our communities, neither in terms of health nor in terms of environmental protection. One issue is transparency, which was really not clear from the beginning (..) The interests of our community, the people, are as important as the companies,” the MP told reporters.
According to B. Pietkiewicz, more opportunities to strengthen the dialogue may appear after the autumn elections.
After the meeting – an invitation to discuss further
The chairman of “Medeinas” Vytautas Vyskupaitis, who attended the meeting for about an hour and a half, emphasized that the residents did not hear any new proposals to solve the problem.
“We have heard that the troubles continue and will never end. The community hoped to receive proposals for those compromises. For 4 years we have been going with our proposals or compromises, but we constantly received the answer that we live in a legal state, if you don’t like something – go to court, defend your interests in court”, V. Vyskupaitis told journalists.
The community representative added that the only solution proposed at the meeting was to continue talking with the ministries and express their concerns.
For his part, Vice Minister of Economy and Innovation Karolis Žemaitis emphasized that any debate is a sign of a democratic society. However, according to the politician, the further right of the community to defend its interest in court remains, but it is expected that the community will continue to talk to the authorities in good faith.
“Obviously, the process was sticky. We have countless factories that are standing still that are not being protested. The fact that mistakes were made, which the investor himself recognizes and is willing to correct them at the moment”, emphasized K. Žemaitis, adding that EIM is ready to moderate future discussions as well.
As the community said earlier, at Monday’s meeting, ministries and responsible institutions will try to put pressure on the population to reach a compromise. However, residents emphasize that the community has been looking for a compromise for almost 4 years.
At the beginning of May, the Administrative Court of Regions ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to re-evaluate the environmental impact assessment report of the wood fiber board factory being built in the village of Pagiriu, Vilnius district, by the company “Homanit Lietuva”. This factory, as the court informed, would operate in the protection zone of the drinking water source, where economic activities are strictly restricted.
Pagiriau village community “Medeina” said that they are convinced that “Homanit Lietuva”, which wants to carry out production in this area, plans to use chemicals. According to residents, the Environmental Protection Agency did not assess this risk.
According to the community, in May of last year, the Supreme Administrative Court of Lithuania (LVAT) declared that the order of the Geological Service of Lithuania under the Ministry of Environment to reduce the Pagiria watershed was illegal. However, the ministry ignores such a decision and seeks to change the Law on Special Conditions of Land Use, thus allowing unlimited chemical activities in the protection zones of water bodies.
As a result of the ministry’s desire to reduce the Pagiria watershed and allow businesses to carry out constructions both on its territory and on the territory of other watersheds, the community of Pagiriau village organized a picket at the Ministry of Environment at the beginning of July.
Homanit’s investment in the wood fiber board factory planned to be built on the territory of the factory located in the village of Pagiriai amounts to 200 million. euros.
2024-08-20 01:23:06