EN

Remediation of landfill Osojnica in Matulji finished

11.07.2022.

The closing conference of the project “Remediation and closing of non-hazardous landfill Osojnica” was held in Matulji. The conference was attended by the representatives of the municipality, contractors, and the representatives of the Fund who provided operating support in project implementation.   

The overall value of the project is close to HRK 44.9 million, with HRK 30 million secured from the European Union Cohesion fund. In addition, the Environmental Protection and Energy Efficiency Fund provided 3.5 million kunas, while the Ministry of Regional Development and EU Funds approved the additional HRK 176.500.

The project manager, Astra Gašparini, pointed out that the landfill was operational in the period from 1968 to 2018, and that more than 500,000 m3 of municipal waste from the area of Matulji, Opatila, Lovran and Mošćenička Draka had been deposited at the landfill covering more than 3,37 ha. In accordance with the project, one of the biggest retaining gabion walls on a landfill was built – 18 meters in height and 333 meters in length, with 5,000 m3 of stone built into the wall by hand. During the works, a pit of 21 meters deep was also discovered, so the Croatian speleological service of the Croatian Mountain Rescue Service joined the remediation project.

Vedran Kinkela, the head of Municipality Matulji, said that the completed remediation and closure of the landfill was yet another landmark in the waste management system. “This project is very important for our municipality, the whole of Liburnija, and Primorje-Gorski Kotar County,” said Kinkela.

The Sector for EU Funds and Intermediate Body level 2 of the Fund participated from the outset in the preparation and implementation of the entire project. Nataša Dankić Sliepčević, the head of the Department for technical verification of environmental and nature protection projects at IB2, pointed out that one of the priorities of the Fund and the Ministry was to remediate landfills and to close them down according to a certain dynamic. “So far, around half a billion kunas have been granted from the EU operational programmes, and 41 landfills have been remediated and closed, while three are work in progress. Recently the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development launched a new call for remediation projects worth HRK 80 million, the funding for which was secured under the National Recovery and Resilience Programme, so we can expect the number of projects to increase, Said Dankić Sliepčević