Environment Energy Mining Watch SEE|News|The hydropower project of Serbia and Republika Srpska on the Drina is troubling Sarajevo

The hydropower project of Serbia and Republika Srpska on the Drina is troubling Sarajevo

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Reactions immediately arrived from Sarajevo, from where Izetbegovic’s SDA and Komsic’s Democratic Front said that it was a matter of gross disrespect for BiH’s internal constitutional competencies and “continuation of the looting of BiH’s public goods.” It didn’t take long for the UN High Representative for BiH, Valentin Inzko, to announce himself. A week ago, he informed the public that he had signed a legal interpretation according to which contracts on hydroelectric power plants on the Drina can only be signed by the state, so BiH needs the consent of such a thing. The Ombudsman of BiH, Ismet Velic, also spoke, noting that if a specific decision is made that is to the detriment of BiH, he will immediately initiate an appropriate procedure.

However, the chairman and Serbian member of the Presidency of BiH, Milorad Dodik, has no dilemma that the only reason why Sarajevo opposes the agreement is that, as he said, it hates Serbs and Serbia. He notes that the Drina is not a border line between Serbia and Republika Srpska, ie BiH in its entire length, and that in the upper course, near Foca, where hydro power plants should be built, it passes entirely through Republika Srpska, between Visegrad and Bajina Basta and only below does it become a boundary line.

The statement on the construction of the Upper Drina Hydropower System, signed by the RS and Serbian entity authorities, is based on the provisions of the RS Inland Navigation Law, which declares all rivers in the entity, including the Drina, as “RS internal waters”. While Sarajevo notes that the law has been declared unconstitutional because rivers are property that can only be disposed of by the state, Banja Luka says that the electric power industry is under the jurisdiction of the entity according to the Dayton Agreement.

“What is continuity are the statements of Inzko, who is acting as the governor of BiH, and not as a representative of the UN. So, all he does is give statements against the Serbian people and all his policy is based on that. “I don’t think that surprises anyone in Serbia, RS, or the world anymore,” Dedjanski said. He believes that RS and Serbia should work on strengthening ties, strengthening the economy, energy and everything else, not paying too much attention to the blows coming from outside, because only a strong Serbia and RS are the guarantor of peace and survival of the Serbian people. And that, our interlocutor adds, is the most important thing for us as a nation.

The significance of the project for the construction of three hydro power plants worth 520 million euros is shown by the fact that their total installed capacity would be 180 megawatts, which is equivalent to the power of Unit 2 in HPP “Djerdap 1”. The front power plant, HPP “Buk-Bijela”, from the point of view of the size of the accumulation, should be the largest power plant on the Drina upstream from Visegrad.

The fact that the entire construction work would take six years speaks volumes about the additional strength of the project. In the first phase of construction, 1,500 workers would be hired, and eventually 5,000 people. Practically everything that is able to work would be employed, they say in the municipality of Foca.

It is also important that it is a matter of sustainable “green energy”. The project for the construction of the Hydro Power Plant “Buk Bojela” was started 40 years ago, and the expropriation was carried out in the seventies of the last century.

In the meantime, the countries have also changed, 25 years have passed since the end of the war in BiH, but some things, obviously, are still very difficult to change.

Source: rs-lat.sputniknews.com

 

 

 

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