The Free Citizens Movement’s Čukarica branch highlights an issue reported to us by residents of a building in the Cerak Vinogradi neighborhood, who have been dealing with overflowing sewage for five months while neither the City Housing Enterprise (Gradsko stambeno) nor the Public Utility Company “Waterworks and Sewerage” (JKP Beogradski vodovod i kanalizacija) are willing to help them resolve it. Citizens are not required to determine who holds jurisdiction over what; rather, it is up to the public enterprises funded by all Belgrade residents to solve these problems.
Since October of last year, residents of the building at 5 Omorika Street have been facing a serious and, judging by the competent authorities, seemingly unsolvable issue! First, everyone smelled a horrific stench throughout the building, only to discover later that raw sewage had backed up into the basement—right where the main water pipes and valves are located. They contacted the City Housing Enterprise, which dispatched subcontractors. These subcontractors visited on several occasions because during the first two visits they failed to bring adequate equipment.
They had to clear out all the sewage just to assess where the issue lay, and they even attempted to pump the waste into the building’s yard, which the residents refused to allow. They spent three days pumping out the liquid before leaving under the pretext that they needed longer hoses, after which the sewage backed up once again and refilled the cleared area. Following several days of this pumping agony, the subcontractor’s verbal conclusion was that the building’s sewage pipes had been mistakenly connected to the street rainwater collection pipes. At that point, they left, stating that the matter was no longer under their jurisdiction.
The residents then called Waterworks and Sewerage. A crew arrived unannounced and concluded that everything was fine—simply because the sewage had been cleared and there had been no recent rain. However, when the rains returned, the basement flooded once again, prompting field crews to return for more pumping. They are merely treating the symptoms rather than fixing the root cause. Residents were told that a repair order had been submitted, but to this day, they have no idea to whom it was submitted, what the recorded defect is, how it will be resolved, or whether the City Housing Enterprise will take any action at all.
Until now, residents have tried to resolve smaller issues through competent institutions, but as they were routinely ignored, they would pool their own money to hire private contractors. In this case, however, public infrastructure is involved, meaning a private fix is not permitted and the state-owned enterprise must do its job. Currently, the City Housing Enterprise is directing them to Waterworks and Sewerage, while the latter continues to point them right back to the former.