For the next 15 years without SHPPs on Stara Planina in Serbia

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It is a great success, according to nature lovers, that in the territory of the city of Pirot, despite the pressures and 58 available locations, investors have not managed to build any small-hydro power plant.

As a result of civic initiative and persistent efforts of environmental experts to prove the harmful effects of small-hydro power plants on nature, mini-hydro power plants will certainly not be built on Stara Planina in the next 15 years. This is foreseen by the draft of the new spatial plan of the city of Pirot, which will be adopted soon.

Protests, roadblocks, conflicts with investors, marked the three-year struggle of the inhabitants of Stara Planina villages and nature lovers against the construction of small-hydro power plants. One of the results of that fight is the new spatial plan of the city of Pirot, in which there are no locations for the construction of small-hydro power plants on mountain rivers.

“All small-hydro power plants have been removed from the area of ​​the nature park and the tourist region of Stara Planina. They remained as potential locations only on the river Nisava downstream from the Pirot West loop from the territory of the administrative area of ​​the city of Pirot “, states Slaviša Tošić, the responsible designer.

Aleksandar Panić from the movement “Let’s Defend the Rivers of Stara Planina” states that the city authorities have long ignored the problem with mini-hydro power plants.

“Satisfaction exists, but the path we have taken to reach this can absolutely not be subsumed under any satisfaction, because this problem with small-hydro power plants has long been ignored by the city authorities. We managed to somehow persuade these people to start thinking and see how harmful the small-hydro power plants are in the protected area “, explains Panić.

The movement “Let’s Defend the Rivers of Stara Planina” says that after consulting with experts, they will submit objections to the draft spatial plan within the legal deadline.

“It is very important to mention that we will monitor the construction of any hydroelectric power plant on the Nisava River, given that there is a possibility of great environmental damage,” said Dragan Jonic from the movement “Let’s Defend Rivers of Stara Planina”.

In the movement “Let’s Defend the Rivers of Stara Planina”, they say that their fight for clean rivers, and against derivation small-hydro power plants, continues on the territory of the whole of Serbia.

Source: rts.rs

 

 

 

 

 

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