The beautiful beach hides a serious threat?

In the Croatian village of Vranjic on the Adriatic Sea, also known as “Little Venice”, a dangerous secret is hidden on the beach of Konica: highly toxic asbestos. For several years the local citizens have been warning that the public beach is polluted, but it is still freely accessible. Moreover, although the authorities have been aware of the situation for a long time, nothing has been done. And so vacationers, mainly tourists visiting the famous city of Split, still continue to come to the dangerous beach and swim in the polluted water.

A civil initiative calls for blocking access to the beach

Back in March, the Croatian news portal morski.hr reported that local residents in the regional council of Solin, to which the village of Varanic belongs, are calling for the “toxic beach” to be restored and fenced off. According to the portal, they were promised a solution to the problem since 2010, but instead of fencing off the asbestos-contaminated beach, vacationers were invited to come to the “urban beach”, when in fact it is toxic and life-threatening water.

According to morski.hr, an asbestos dump for decades was conducted in the area next to the seashore, a dump that dumped waste from the Semex cement factory directly adjacent to the sea. Finally, under the leadership of resident Mariana Gruvitz, the citizens’ initiative “A place that wants to live” was launched, which has been warning about the problem for four years and calls for the area to be renovated and fenced off. The members of the initiative have already written dozens of letters expressing their demands – but so far without success. Gruwitz expressed her displeasure to morski.hr that the responsible authorities and ministries continue to delay the solution.

The mayor of Solin, Delivor Nenchevich, opposes all the accusations and says that both the asbestos dump and the beach have already been cleaned. However, the Environmental Protection Fund in Croatia sees things differently. Studies carried out in 2019 found that there is construction waste containing asbestos on almost 1.46 dunams on land, and 4.84 dunams at sea, and the residents had to wait a long time to get permission for cleaning. The start of the cleaning and renovation work is planned for the future after the building laws are passed, although no specific date has been given.

How dangerous is asbestos?

Asbestos is a clearly carcinogenic substance and is characterized by its ability to break down into tiny fibers that can be easily inhaled. The inhaled fibers can remain healthy for a long time and irritate the tissue, when lung cancer or a tumor may be the result of such irritation. In the past, these fibers were mainly used in building houses because they were supposed to provide good insulation.