Zelena Istra: No to Senseless Construction of Golf Courses!

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Zelena Istra warned yesterday that the General Urban Plan for Istria Districts includes plans for construction of no less than 23 golf courses, which are used as an excuse for further urbanization and �apartment-ization� of undeveloped sections of nature and coastal land.

�The pressure of the investors and the easy with which the authorities in Istria succumb to that pressure, withouth a thought about the sustainability and long-term damages, are crucial for our future. When selecting locations for prospect golf courses, no consideration was given to the risks they might present to the environment�, said Zelena Istra in a public release.

There are already six approved locations for construction of golf courses in Istria, which should suffice, combined with the existing course on the Briuni Islands, to satisfy the needs of golf-lovers and the tourist image of Istria.

According to Zelena Istra activists, construction of golf courses includes excessive waste of water, funds, includes urbanization of preserved natural environment, excessive use of pesticides, which leads to loss of natural diversity. According to Zelena Istra, one mid-sized 18-hole golf course spends the same amount of water every 24 hours as a small town of 8,000 people.

�Water is our wealth and basic requirement of life � we can�t allow that it goes to waste, which shall, innevitably, happen if we build so many golf courses�, says Zelena Istra.

Any golf course is completely artificial building, and includes not only the actual course, but the accompanying facilities for accomodation and entertainment of players. Each of the proposed golf courses would cover between 80 and 150 hectares of land (forests, farmland and coastal strip). For reasons of successful promotion, the developers demand the most beautiful and valuable natural ground.

Furthermore, the use of fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides needed for conventional landscaping cosmetics of golf courses creates high level contamination of the ground, which can lead to contamination of pottable water springs.

Zelena Istra activists believe that there is great cause for concern, having in mind that the number of applications for construction of golf courses is rising exponentially. Veljko Ostojic from Istria District Commission for Tourism said recently for �Glas istre� paper, that the permit allocation procedure will be simplified and the developers will be exempt from the obligation to pay the water tax. Furthermore, the price of cubic metre of water would not be more than two Kuna, while the citizens pay 11 kuna per cubic metre.

Zelena Istria says that the recommendations designed to speed up the construction of golf courses in Istria also include separation of forests to construct the accompanying facilities for the typical golf resort. For all reasons listed above, Zelena Istra demanded from the District authorities to urgently change the Genderal Urban Plan and delete the proposed 16 golf courses from the plan.