A Mark In Space – Pavle Pond Or Palic

There are official data on the quality of water of Palic Lake from as early as 1847, when the chemical analysis of the water was performed for the first time. At the time, it was a typical soda lake with sodium carbonate salts. Such composition of water enabled the development of spa tourism, and the water was also commercially used for making soda. The records from the late 19th century show that the lake plants flourished. This process kept repeating over time, and fish kills were recorded almost throughout the whole 20th century. The culmination of this problem occurred in summer of 1970, when, due to high levels of pollution and uncontrolled algae bloom, the oxygen disappeared from water which resulted in almost all the living world from the lake dying. The lake was dried out in 1971 and all the silt was extracted from it. A wastewater treatment plant was built, and in 1976, the lake was refilled.

The hydrologist Misel Roman came from Germany to Palic in 2011 through an international exchange project conducted through a German organization for technical cooperation and is currently working as the adviser and member of the Work Group for the Rehabilitation of Palic and Ludos Lakes in the public enterprise Park Palic. They say that the first step was a detailed search for the things necessary to successfully implement the plan of cleaning the lakes of Palic and Ludos. Finding the sources of funds was the most difficult issue. The total value of the project of rehabilitation of Palic Lake amounts to around 7.5 million euros, out of which 6.5 million euros were donated by the KFW Bank via a governmental framework of cooperation between Germany and Serbia. In 2017, the expropriation of the land, as the precondition for the protective zone around the lake, should be completed, whereas the second important precondition for the improvement of water quality, the sewerage system for the Palic settlement, should be completed by 2018.

Genre: Ecology

Country of production: Serbia

Year of production: 2016

Broadcast channel: RTS

Duration: 30'