SLOVAK citizens sent 77 complaints to the anti-corruption line of the Ministry of Environment, envirošpión (“enviro-spy”) during the first half of 2012. Most of the complaints pertained to illegal waste dumps, the illegal cutting of trees and air pollution, Maroš Stano, the spokesperson of the Ministry of Environment told the SITA newswire.
“The Ministry of Environment is a partner of this project, while we pass the complaints of citizens to the Slovak Environmental Inspection Office (SIŽP) as well as to the related district environmental offices,” said Stano.
Citizens can report, either by telephone or e-mail, environmental wrongdoings while remaining anonymous. The system was launched at the behest of the previous minister of environment, József Nagy, in early July 2011.
Slovaks can also use a mobile application, TrashOut, an environmental project aimed at locating illegal dumps all around the world.
The map of located waste dumps can be seen at http://www.trashout.me/trashmap.
The project seeks to reduce the number of illegal dumps. Someone who spots an illegal dump can take a photo of it, assess what has been dumped there and send the image and the brief report through the online application.
