Following on from last week’s opening of a new section of the Danube cycle route in Serbia, today saw another really positive happening here in Novi Sad. The local climbing club, Adrenalin, together with (as far as I can work out), the Serbia Zeleni (”The Greens”) organised a kind of protest cycle ride from the centre of Novi Sad up to the Ledinci Lake, around 12km outside town. It was meant to draw public attention to the issues surrounding the Lake and attempts by a mining company to restart quarrying operations there.

A bit more about the lake later, but here was the scene this morning, outside Novi Sad’s SPENS sports and shopping centre:

At least 100 cyclists signed up for the protest, many of them familiar faces - keen recreational cyclists, of which there are not too many in Novi Sad. They included Igor, of Serbian recumbent fame, who turned up on his amazing machine all the way from Belgrade. All of us then set off, with a police escort, over the Sloboda bridge, two guys at the front awkwardly carrying a banner saying Sačuvajmo jezero (”Let’s save the lake”):

Just a bit about the Ledinci Lake (link to a brief Wikipedia article, with some pictures too): it was once an open-cast quarry, which had been abandoned for some years. In around 1999, while the NATO bombing was going on, the pumps broke down and the quarry site started to fill with water from streams that flow into the site. Quite quickly, a new lake was formed, which later became a popular local beauty and bathing spot, with very nice clean water.

In 2006, there was a mysterious landslide (some room for conspiracy theories there) which injured several people and, together with suggestions that the water levels were getting too high (there is no proper outflow from the lake) led to the site being immediately closed down. After this, talk which had been simmering for some time resurfaced, namely that an Austrian-owned mining company, operating through a local company called Alas based in Rakovac (a nearby village), was going to be given rights to restart operations at the site. Just one thing though, the lake is well inside the boundaries of the Fruška gora National Park. How mining (for rock) was ever allowed is a good question, but now that the area has also gained in ecological significance, there is more at stake.

For a good while, it seemed to the residents of the quiet village of Ledinci at the foot of the approach to the lake, and to an increasing number of ordinary people who had come to value the lake, that commercial interests (and probably some form of corruption) were going to win out, the site was going to be destroyed and the trucks would start trundling through Ledinci again.

One reaction shows the strength of feeling among local residents about the issue:

The sign hanging from the rope says, “A gallows for those who want to destroy the lake”.

Amazingly, pressure by green activists (of which there are very few in Serbia, I assure you) seems to have yielded results: the local government has inspected a couple of sites and concluded that illegal operations have been going on which are not permitted in the National Park, and have banned further activity. This is pretty amazing and shows that environmental awareness may finally growing in Serbia.

Today’s protest (actually a celebration of sorts), showed that cyclists are particularly aware of environmental issues in Serbia - makes sense, bikers spend more time than most out in nature and have more of an awareness at what is at stake. So it was a heart-warming sight to see so many people out in support of today’s action.

Our column continued up towards the lake, with a couple of altercations along the way with impatient and ill-mannered drivers, of which there are unfortunately a great number in Serbia (I’ll leave that rant for another time). They included this guy, who simply had to push through the crowd of cyclists, but who was stopped by Igor, who got in front of him Tiananmen Square-style with his recumbent, and halted his progress until the cops could stop and shout at the offending driver:

Well, the one thing I can’t show you is the actual lake. It is still closed off, and the police asked us not to cause any trouble by going up to the gate (as if we would!) that the mining company had set up.

But all in all, this ride was a really positive sign, that things may be changing in Serbia and ordinary people can start focusing on more than just what they will eat tomorrow and can start taking action to protect Serbia’s fantastic environment. And I am especially glad it was cyclists taking the initiative!

Oh and I have been trying to figure out how to tie in the EXIT festival, that I have been writing a bit about here, with cycling. Well, it seems that the EXIT Festival has also lent its support to the campaign to save the Ledinci Lake, as can be seen here (in Serbian).

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Posted on July 8th, 2007 by markowe
Filed under: MTB Serbia (All)