Ada Ciganlija
Ada Ciganlija, colloquially shortened to Ada, is a river island that has artificially been turned into a peninsula, located in the Sava River's course through central Belgrade, Serbia. The name can also refer to the adjoining artificial Lake Sava and its beach. To take advantage of its central location, over the past few decades, it was turned into an immensely popular recreational zone, most notable for its beaches and sports facilities, which, during summer seasons, can have over 100,000 visitors daily and up to 300,000 visitors over the weekend. Owing to this popularity, Ada Ciganlija has been commonly nicknamed "More Beograda", which was officially accepted as an advertising slogan in 2008, stylised as More BeogrADA.
Location
Ada Ciganlija is located on the southern bank of the Sava River, 4 km from its mouth, and entirely belongs to Belgrade's municipality of Čukarica. Its eastern tip roughly borders the urban neighborhood of Senjak on the west, and the body of the peninsula borders the neighborhoods of Čukarica and Makiš. Across the river, Ada Ciganlija borders Novi Beograd and another artificial peninsula called Mala Ciganlija. Between Ada Ciganlija and Novi Beograd lies Ada Međica, a wholly insulated river island.Geography
Formerly an island, Ada Ciganlija is now an elongated peninsula, stretching for 6 km from west to east and 700 m from north to south at its widest, and covering an area of 2.7 km2. The entire Ada Ciganlija ecological complex, which stretches into the municipality of Novi Beograd, covers an area of 8 km2, including the islands of Ada Ciganlija and Ada Međica, waterways between the two Adas and Lake Sava, and some of Makiš itself. Lake Sava, formerly a branch of the Sava, was turned into a lake with two dams, while the remaining section on the northeast was turned into Čukarica Bay. There is another small lake on Ada Ciganlija itself, known as Ada Safari.Thanks to the combination of factors, Ada Ciganlija is privileged with a microclimate. Situated between a river, an artificial flowing lake, various islands, and a heavily wooded area, air humidity is heightened compared to the rest of the city, helping to nullify Belgrade's high temperatures during summer.
Hydrology
Lake Sava
Lake Sava, often also referred to as Ada, was created from the right arm of the Sava with the building of two dams near the northern and southern tips of the island in 1967. The lake is long, has an average width of and is deep. It covers and area of and is above sea level, one of the lowest areas of Belgrade. of its shores on both sides have been transformed into a gravel beach. The water regularly reaches during summer.Both dams allow water to flow through tubes and pumps. This way, the main body of the lake is connected to the smaller body of water on the southwest, which is itself separated from the river by the third dam. This mini "buffer" lake called Taložnik is used as a purifier for the waters of both Lake Sava and city waterworks, which also use this water. Filtered water is constantly being pumped into the lake while on the northeast, the water is pumped out by electrically powered pumps through another dam into Čukarica Bay. In this way, an artificial flow of water through the lake is created. Because the water is also used for drinking, sanitation and environmental protection of the lake are imperative and the lake is under rigorous environmental protection. Weeds are groomed on the lake's bottom to purify the water by bonding phosphorus, nitrogen and dirt. Use of motorboats is strictly prohibited in the lake and dogs are not allowed on the beach.
Wildlife in the lake mostly consists of the fish species which were introduced since the 1950s. The most common fish in the lake are the introduced silver carp and grass carp, but large autochthonous wels catfish, weighing over, can also be found, causing concern among the swimmers so the authorities issued a statement that they are harmless. In March 2019, a long catfish was caught in the lake. Catfish of this size is a rarity and, as required by the law, it was returned in to the lake. Other catfishes of this size were reported by the divers in previous years, but they lay lazily on the bottom of the lake, not swimming to the surface.
There are 20 to 25 fish species in the lake, including the autochthonous carp, northern pike, zander, common bream, asp and European perch, and the imported, and highly invasive brown bullhead, Prussian carp and pumpkinseed. There are also crayfish and crabs, and since the 2010s, the red-eared slider inhabits the lake, too, probably being released in the lake by the owners who kept them as pets.
The freshwater jellyfish Craspedacusta sowerbyi was discovered in 2008, garnering much attention for the lake. These anthomedusae begin their life as polyps and develop into jellyfish only if conditions, such as purity and water temperature over 25 °C, are right. However, authorities claim that these harmless and almost invisible jellyfish actually have been present in the lake for over 20 years. The first specimens were discovered in 1994 and they can also be found in the Danube. They live only for several days.
Ada Safari
Ada Safari is a small, irregularly shaped lake on the northern tip of Ada Ciganlija, primarily used for fishing. In the late 1960s, the hole was formed as the sand was dug to construct the permanent embankment which connected Ada Ciganlija to the mainland, turning it into the peninsula by 1974.It was the last remaining marshy area during the transformation Ada Ciganlija, infested by undergrowth and reeds, until its conversion into a lake in 1994, long, with an area of. It was officially opened in 1995. The water pumps are used to fill the lake, bringing water from the Sava Lake. Rare species of fish were introduced in order to create a fishing resort, which now consists of 300 numbered fishing seats around the lake with an obligatory special permit for fishing. Fish species include common carp, grass carp, crucian carp, wels catfish, Prussian carp, zander and tench, which is rare in Serbia. Fish are mostly released back into the lake as fishermen can keep their catch in case if the fish is lighter than, if they pay extra and if it is not a tench, which is protected by the law.
Some animals roam freely in the area, like rabbits, ducks, geese and swans. A small zoo has been built next to the lake, chiefly containing swamp birds, as well as more exotic animals such as peacocks, pheasants and pygmy goats. There is also a restaurant on the shore and a typical Serbian 18th century house from Šumadija which was deconstructed from the Central Serbia and transferred here. The house was originally built around 1735 in the village of Junkovac, near Topola. There is also a "Magical forest", an area for the kids with reproductions of the fairytale characters: Evil Witch, Cinderella, Wolf and the Three Little Pigs, Little Red Riding Hood, the Scarecrow and the Tin Man, etc. There is a small stream over which the bridge and the cross, both made from timber, have been constructed. Fish are especially prepared for the winter in the process of "winter carp bathing". In the second week of November each year, fish are taken from the lake to the shore by the professional fishermen. The lake is then emptied and the largest fish specimens are "bathed" in the small bathtubs with the water mixed with the medical, healing ingredients.
In 2022, new city administration headed by mayor Aleksandar Šapić included relocation of the Belgrade Zoo from the Belgrade Fortress in the city's urban plan. In February 2023, Šapić announced relocation of the zoo to Ada Safari. This would also include relocation of the Partizan settlement. The relocation was planned to last several years. Šapić added that the "political decision was made to handle this", and, if everything goes by the plan, the relocation might be finished in three years.
The new zoo will be double in size, from to. In order to ease the access to the zoo on an island, city will push the construction of the pedestrian bridge and revitalize the project of gondola lift from New Belgrade to Košutnjak, via Ada. Public and expert's backlash against the project was massive, especially regarding hastiness, arbitration, irrelevance, legality and selected location. Public speculated that the residents of the newly built affluent K-Distrikt residential complex across the zoo are bothered by the smell, or that some more lucrative structures might be built instead of the zoo on such exceptional location. Additionally, this area of Ada is a floodplain with high level of underground waters, and is an area under sanitary protection.
Šapić then back-pedaled a bit, stating that this is just a "political idea" which is not hastily made, that only now analyses and surveys will be done to check the viability, that nothing will be built instead of the zoo but the fortress will be conserved, and that there is no set time frame for the project.
Čukarica Bay
The arm of the Sava river which separated the island from the mainland was called Čukarica Arm. Serbian Shipping Society, which was founded in 1890, decided to use the arm as the zimovnik, or winter shelter for ships and boats. Upstream from Čukarica, at the time suburban village of Belgrade, the Society dammed the arm with slanted, shackled, thick triangular piles, called pilotne. Facing the stream, they stopped the ice which would then elevate itself slab by slab until it reaches over the top of the piles and breaks into pieces. The stream would then take smaller pieces next to the docked ships. In the case of complete freezing of the river, the tugboats were deployed, with crew members being armed with axes, grappling hooks and dynamite.As the Society built and kept zimovnik on its own, without state help, they charged the use of the object. In the arm's central section, on Čukarica bank, the first shipbuilding facility in Serbia was opened. Though the engines had to be acquired abroad, the shipyard was producing smaller and medium-sized steamboats. Known as the Čukarica Shipyard, it also repaired all Serbian ships and continuously produced iron-made barges of all kinds and sizes for Serbian and Bulgarian markets.
When Ada was connected to the mainland via the embankments in 1967, northern section of the arm was transformed into the Čukarica Bay, though the previous name survived, too. The arm is elongated in the southwest–northeast direction, bounded by the northern tip of Ada Ciganlija, the embankment and the right bank of the Sava. This is where the Topčiderka river flows into the Sava. Near the connection point with the main flow of the Sava, the bay is today crossed by the Ada Bridge.
The bay is used for the sports and leisure activities as the kayaking clubs were located in it, so as the marina for small boats, while the banks are encircled with the bicycle paths. The bay is long and wide. Surface of the bay itself is, but the area which city administration included in the bay locality includes and additional of aquatorium and of the surrounding land. In March 2018 city announced an urban design competition for the adaptation of the total bay area. The forested area on the mainland, at the entrance into the bay, administratively belongs to the municipality of Savski Venac and covers.
Since the early 1980s there is a constant ecological problem due to the massive pollution of the bay as a result of the polluted waters of the Topčiderka river. The garbage and highly polluted silt fills the bay and creates shoals. During low-tide, the bay is unusable for the boats in the marina, located in the middle of the bay or for the kayakers of Partizan and Crvena Zvezda who use the bay for practice. The silt is up to thick, smells bad and is poisonous so the swimming in the bay is forbidden.
In 2011 the estimated amount of garbage sludge in the bay was. The sludge cannot simply be dredged and thrown in the Sava further downstream due to the toxicity. The plan to build a treatment plant on the bank near the Belgrade Fair which would detoxicate the sludge and produce fertilizer from it was scrapped due to the high costs. At the time, the silt is being dredged and vegetation cut just enough to make it navigable for the small boats in the marina. The bay was partially dredged in 2016.
The pollution of the bay continued, including two atmospheric precipitation collectors which overspill into the bay, to which the fecal sewage is illegally connected, and the bay was described as the ecological time bomb. In December 2019 the winning project was announced. It includes the transformation of the bay into the artificial whitewater and the proper marina. A project by Aleksandar Nedeljković, named "Flight of the gull" envisions the reconstruction and elevation of all embankments along the bay's banks, turning them into the vertical retaining walls. Pumps for the creation of the whitewater by day, would be used to purify the water by night and prevent the sludge from depositing on the bottom. Proposed name for the marina and sports center is "Whitewater Arena". However, this project, just like some others from the competition does not tackle the problem of the already existing sludge deposits or the toxicity of the waste. Also, it was outright labeled as way too expensive, even by its authors.
An experiment was conducted when the water from the bay and river was pumped into the special pools in the nursery gardens of the state company for the forest management "Srbijašume". The water was treated by various selected plants, in the process called phytoremediation, and the quality of the water improved from the fifth to the second category, but the technology wasn't pursued any further. Instead, in 2019 and 2020, it was applied at the Lake Trešnja, in the suburb of Ripanj, where it proved to be highly successful in reducing pollutants in the water. After several months of bad smell which spread from the bay, the dredging began in November 2020. Until February 2021, the was removed, thus creating a channel to allow the water to flow out of the bay into the river. The dredged sludge is spread along the central section of the Danube's flow, upstream from the Pančevo Bridge.
Instead of revitalization, the bay turned out to be polluted more than ever. By April 2021 the water was classified as the lowest, fifth category. The water was anoxic, full of ammonium-nitrogen and orthophosphates. The red wastewater from the sewage also influenced water's organoleptic qualities – changed color, murkiness, strong smell and visible residues of organic matter, but in May city administration announced it inspected the Topčiderka's watershed, founded the polluting factories and closed them, fixing this problem.