Ada Huja

Ada Huja (Cyrillic: Ада Хуја) is an urban neighborhood of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It is located in Belgrade's municipality of Palilula.

Location

Ada Huja is a peninsula on the right bank of the Danube. It is bordered by the neighborhoods of Viline Vode and Deponija to the east and Bogoslovija and Karaburma to the south. It engulfs a bay of Rukavac (Cyrillic: Рукавац; Serbian for armlet) on the Danube, which separates its eastern half from the neighborhoods of Višnjica and Rospi Ćuprija to the south. The area is generally bordered by two traffic facilities: the Višnjička street to the south and the bridge of Pančevački most to the east.

History

Ada Huja was previously an island, as its name suggests (ada huja, Turkish/Serbian for rustle island). The island and the entire Danube's bank across it (Viline Vode, Karaburma, Višnjička Banja) is rich in springs of the sulfur water. Across the island, in the modern neighborhood of Rospi Ćuprija, remains of the major Celtic necropolis are found. Ancient Romans cultivated grapevines and used thermal springs for public bathhouses. At the beginning of the 20th century, the island was covered with lush vegetation and vineyards, helped by the favorable micro-climate (winds) and thermal springs. It was a green oasis with wild beaches on the shores. In 1960 it was designated as the official city landfill and remained so until 1977 when the new landfill was opened in the village of Vinča. The filling up of the Danube's bed between the bank of Belgrade and the island began, with garbage and dirt, effectively turning Ada Huja into a peninsula in the 1960s. The filled area covers the western part of Ada Huja while the former island now forms the eastern half, with a separate island-like extension on its eastern tip. Today, from the Pančevački most to the easternmost tip, Ada Huja is almost 4 kilometres (2.5 miles) long and the entire area (filled and former island) covers 5 square kilometres (1.9 square miles). [1][2][3]

Economy

Ada Huja is entirely industrial area. However, two Romani people slums (informal settlements, or locally classified as unhygienic settlements) developed on its eastern (Ada Huja) and western tip (Deponija).

Western section generally spawns around the Vuka Vrčevića street. It is filled with many hangars and companies for building and construction, including a series of concrete plants and gravel and aggregates storing and treating facilities.

Central section is still mostly unused. Except for several hangars, the area is grassy, forested and marshy. During high levels of the Danube waters, entire bank of Ada Huja is flooded and companies very often don't work until the water recedes.

Eastern section, on the western tip of the Rukavac is generally referred to as Ada Huja by most people, as the former island begins here. Some of the largest industrial facilities of Ada Huja are located here: paper and cardboard factory Avala-Ada, furniture factory Novi Dom, several gravel storages, etc. The shore is arranged in this part, turned into a quay and the promenade. There are several restaurants, children playgrounds, volleyball and tennis courts. Balkan's largest kart racing track is also located here. A small dock was constructed on the quay.[3] The forested area of the former island stretches from here to the east.

Future

Plans for the future of Ada Huja vary. A company Eko Zona Ada Huja was founded to transform it into the future recreational zone, with marina, large shopping malls, facilities for water sports and sport terrains, though not much is done. Company still receives large quantities of garbage, earth and rubble which is used to stabilize the marsh in the central part and for continuing filling up of the Rukavac. In the current fashion of giving foreign names (especially a series of 'cities') to the newly built areas of Belgrade, this one, projected for 2008-2010,[1] is supposed to be called Dunav City (Dunav is Serbian for the Danube). The Faculty of Architectury however proposed the name Vilingrad ("fairy town"). The project was scrapped later.

However, this may be in collision with the General Urbanistic Plan (GUP) of Belgrade, as the city government plans to construct another bridge over the Danube from Ada Huja which would intensify the traffic. Also a railway is supposed to be conducted through the area and over the new bridge, with the Belgrade's future main loco-freight railway station to be located in Ada Huja.

Still, despite constant announcements from the city government that Ada Huja will be turned into another Ada Ciganlija, a green area and a recreational hub for this part of Belgrade, that the bridge will be built, etc., except for some works on the quay along the Danube, as of 2017 nothing has been done. Apart from the lack of fundings and general indifference of the city bureaucracy, there are other problems. Port of Belgrade, which was acquired by the Serbian tycoon Milan Beko, claims ownership of the entire city’s right bank of the Danube, including the entire Ada Huja. City has been suing the Port for years, where one court would decide that city is the owner, and than the higher court would say differently and so on. Another major problem is state of the soil in Ada Huja. Consisting of decades old layers of garbage, pressed down and occasionally mixed with dirt, the soil is full of methane and before any construction on it, it has to be remediated, as placing a house on such a ground would be like placing it atop the bomb.[4] In 2011/12, some green movements and experts from the Faculty of Forestry investigated the area. On some areas of the landfill, there were bursts of methane and other gasses, right below the surface. They measured 30 grams of petroleum hydrocarbon and substantial presence of the heavy metals per 1 kilogram of the soil. It was estimated that there are 300.000 cubic metres (10,594.4 cubic feet) of contaminated sludge in the Rukavac (which is one third of the total water volume in it) and water is so polluted that it is beyond any category. Already in 2008 it was estimated that the Rukavac can't be saved anyway and that it's eastern section, up to the mouth of the Mirijevski Potok, should be filled with earth and turned into the ground. An estimated cost of the healing project measures in the tens of millions of euros, which would include a particular area where the contaminated sludge would be transferred and treated. A specific species of trees have to be selected for the reforestation and still the land would have to be filled with at least a meter thick layer of humus before the planting. Efforts to plant seedlings in the soil as it is were unsuccessful as they all withered.[5][6][7]

In 2011 several local environmental organizations decided to save at least some part of Ada Huja. Revitalization project covered an area of 12 ha (30 acres) on the tip of the peninsula. They cleaned and treated the land turning it into the park with five gardens, 500 tree seedlings and over 2,000 other plants. The project was declared one of the top 25 ecological projects in Europe.[3] Previously, 2,000 m3 (71,000 cu ft) of garbage had to be removed and 500 m3 (18,000 cu ft) of humus was poured instead. Sand and gravel were also poured for the children playgrounds to be formed on them, and a classroom was built for the students. In 2012 environmentalist suggested construction of the pontoon bridge, bicycle path and the bird watch tower as there are six pairs of white-tailed eagless living in Ada Huja. Experts also suggested for the pipe to be conducted below Ada Huja, connecting the main flow of the Danube with Rukavac. That way, strong and constant influx of water would naturally clean the now dead Rukavac.[8] As of 2017, none of the propositions have been achieved.

On 15 April 2017 city government announced yet another project for one section of Ada Huja. It is an amalgam of all the previous ones and envisions a modern residential-commercial complex (including highrise), removal of the industrial zone, new bridge over the Danube, cleaning of the area and construction of the sewage system. Majority of the locality, which in total should cover 100 ha (250 acres), will be adapted as the excursion ground with green areas and sport facilities, like on Ada Ciganlija. The project is only in the proposition stage as no preparations have been done.[3]

Paradajz Island

Across the easternmost tip of Ada Huja, due to the alluvial silt brought by the Danube, another smaller island formed across the bank of Višnjica. Because of its originally round shape, it was named Paradajz (“tomato”). It has been growing ever since and is now more ovally shaped.

References

  1. 1 2 Politika daily, January 29, 2008, p.21
  2. ↑ Dimitrije Bukvić (4 October 2011). "Oaza na ostrvu samoniklog paradajza" (in Serbian). Politika.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Tanjug (15 April 2017). "Ada Huja postaje izletište i stambeno-komercijalna zona" (in Serbian). Politika.
  4. ↑ D.V.V.–D.M.–V.V., "Ada Huja novi rekreativni centar grada", Politika (in Serbian)
  5. ↑ Vladimir Vukasović (29 January 2012). "Park kao vesnik nove Ade Huje" (in Serbian). Politika.
  6. ↑ Vladimir Vukasović, "Desetine miliona evra ta lečenje Ade Huje", Politika (in Serbian)
  7. ↑ Vladimir Vukasović (14 December 2008). "Ada Huja na izdisaju" (in Serbian). Politika.
  8. ↑ Vladimir Vukasović (25 September 2012), "Tim stručnjaka za Adu Huju", Politika (in Serbian)

Sources

Coordinates: 44°49′23″N 20°30′39″E / 44.82306°N 20.51083°E / 44.82306; 20.51083

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