By: Petra Janša
“For several days now, photos of connecting sewage pipes to channel C0 have been circulating in public. These were brought to the surface by the storm on Friday (August 4th, 2023) in Sneberje. Just to clarify, this is how Prvi dnevnik on TV Slovenia starts on August 10th!”
The host of the Prvi dnevnik on the national TV continues the report: “Because the same designer as the controversial channel C0 was responsible for the connection, a group of experts and academics in a new public letter from the civil initiative ‘Drinking Water’ is demanding an immediate halt to the operation of the channel, as it is alleged to have not been constructed according to appropriate standards. The mayor of Ljubljana, Zoran Janković, denies any damages to channel C0.” Jože Duhovnik, a mechanical engineer and designer, also warns in the report: “Groundwater is already flowing into the existing pipes. It is not true that the pipes are sealed; they are leaking, and groundwater has entered these laid pipes, which is further evidence that the construction was not done correctly. What is even worse, these sealed joints are not suitable for the long term, the way they have been implemented at this location.”
Piles of trash and scattered pipes
As we know, the recent extensive rainfall also affected the city of Ljubljana. However, the main issues were caused by the rapidly rising Sava River, which first breached its banks in the Tacen area and then in Sneberje. The flooding also impacted Gradaščica. Areas like Vič, Brod, Vikrč, and Tomačevo were flooded. Other parts of the city fared relatively well due to the effective flood protection measures that were implemented after the floods in 2010. The horrifying aftermath of the flood in the Sneberje area is depicted through photographs taken by former journalist Jure Zorčič, capturing tons of destroyed belongings in front of houses. The municipal authorities of Ljubljana later confirmed the cleaning of Sneberje. They shared images of the cleaning operation on Instagram, taken in the twilight, almost night. This led many to wonder if the cleaners also removed the washed-up sewage pipes. David Polutnik, the director of the public company Voka Snaga, confidently stated that the connecting sewage channel C0 had not suffered any damage during the floods, neither in the sewage system nor in the water supply system. This was attributed to the fact that the upper part of the channel is situated away from the Sava River and the lower part is concreted precisely to prevent damage during such events. However, the photographs tell a different story: scattered pipes of the C0 channel.
Čufer: No joking around in the water protection area!
“In the parliament, Mayor Janković and his subordinates, Mlakar and Polutnik (nomen est omen), assured us that channel C0 does not run through a flood-prone area. The recent flood has proven that the route of channel C0 runs through multiple areas that were flooded and are also marked as flood-prone zones on maps. If the channel C0 were pre-filled with water from the Sava River, using a continuous polypropylene pipe welded without sensitive socket joints, everything would, I presume, be without consequences. However, during this year’s heavy rains and prior to the recent flood, the polyester pipes showed severe assembly defects and proven leakage at the joints, and even vertical flattening, measuring 75 mm in one instance, indicating a very unprofessional installation and damage to channel C0. This would not be a significant issue in normal areas, and it is within standards to have minimal discharges. But in the water protection area, there is no joking around, as all these and even larger discharges due to seal degradation will heavily pollute the sole groundwater source for 340,000 residents and 120,000 daily visitors of Ljubljana and its surroundings. The main pipe route of channel C0 lies in a flood-prone area! The crossing with a gas pipeline in Črnuče is particularly dangerous, where at the Črnuče Bridge, all infrastructure intersects: road and rail bridges, while the channel C0 pipes are buried so shallow that, when the water receded, cracks and pipe joints are visible through gaps in the pathway,” noted Andrej Čufer in a brief commentary for Demokracija. Čufer, who has long been warning about the dangers of channel C0, redirected his career towards creating architecture that combines innovative and environmentally responsible projects, which certainly does not apply to channel C0. “This implies that the flood at Črnuče Bridge near Ježica Driving School, which flooded the route to a depth of 0.5 to 1 meter, thoroughly soaked the soil with which the pipes were filled. This soil turned into mud, and since the specific weight of mud is greater than that of water, buoyancy displaced and lifted the empty or partially empty pipe, causing the protective concrete of the channel C0 to crack. It is also assumed that a significant part of the ‘PROTECTIVE’ reinforced concrete abutment has been inundated with sediment and mud, rendering external pipe inspection impossible. If so, it means the project is misguided and consequently dangerous, for which the responsible parties are at fault,” Čufer explains, adding that due to this, “The Civil Initiative Drinking Water advocates for a professional examination of channel C0 and its construction documentation”. “The entire interior of the pipes must be recorded with a specialised pipeline inspection device called a ‘pig’, capturing the entire route over the water-bearing area with high-definition 4K video technology, recording precise location with lidar or laser technology to measure pipe geometry and flattening, verifying the longitudinal gradient and water tightness, which seals the pipe at joint positions with two hydraulic seals and checks for water tightness. There are no more excuses this time, as the leakage of sewage equals genocide for Ljubljana and, as the capital and administrative city, also for Slovenia,” emphasised Andrej Čufer in his commentary.
Parliamentary Investigative Commission
In this context, it is worth mentioning that a parliamentary commission was established at the initiative of the SDS (members of the second opposition party NSi also joined with their signatures) to investigate abuses and illegalities related to the construction of the connecting channel C0 in the area of the Ljubljana aquifer of the Ljubljana Field. The commission will be led by Anja Bah Žibert, and its members will include Martin Premk (Svoboda), who will also be the vice president, Aleksander Reberšek (NSi), Jonas Žnidaršič (SD), and Nataša Sukič (Levica). Deputy members include Lenart Žavbi (Svoboda), Andrej Kosi (SDS), Iva Dimic (NSi), Jani Prednik (SD), and Milan Jakopovič (Levica). The SDS is convinced that the construction of the C0 channel in the area of the Ljubljana aquifer endangers drinking water for over 300,000 people. Drinking water is invaluable, emphasised SDS member Anja Bah Žibert at that time, while also accusing Ljubljana Mayor Zoran Janković of ecological violence. Janković had already announced that he would participate in the investigation if invited. He reiterated that the municipality possesses all legally valid construction permits for the channel’s construction. “By September, when the parliamentarians resume their work, the C0 channel will be fully completed,” Janković said, unaware at the time that Slovenia would experience the worst floods in its history at the beginning of August. As mentioned before, the floods in Sneberje sadly confirmed the justified concerns about the, to put it mildly, irregularities of the C0 channel.
It should also be noted that the Ministry of Environment, Climate, and Energy, led by Uroš Brežan, was supposed to receive a legal opinion from the University of Maribor Faculty of Law regarding the C0 channel by the end of July. Based on this opinion, the ministry was expected to proceed with the environmental impact assessment process and decide on issuing an environmental consent. The University of Maribor Faculty of Law was initially scheduled to prepare the legal opinion by the end of June, but they requested an extension until the end of July. The ministry will pay 28,000 euros excluding value-added tax for the legal analysis. Furthermore, as a member of parliament, Anja Bah Žibert has already requested the acquisition of the mentioned legal opinion. We are still awaiting a response.