The formation of an expert group of Montenegro and Republika Srpska that analyzes the cross-border impact of the future Buk Bijela hydroelectric power plant on the Drina should ensure that not a single meter of the Tara and Piva rivers on the territory of Montenegro is submerged, State Secretary in the Ministry of Ecology Danilo Mrdak announced to Radio Free Europe (RSE).
As previously announced by the Montenegrin Ministry of Ecology, the expert team of Montenegro and Republika Srpska will in the next month review the project documentation, structure and planned mode of operation of the Buk Bijela hydroelectric power plant, and agree on the elevation of the overflow point, i.e. the maximum upper elevation to which the future artificial lake can grow.
On May 17 of this year, Serbia and Republika Srpska laid the foundation stone for the construction of three hydropower plants on the Drina and shared ownership of them. Among them is the hydropower plant Buk Bijela, the construction of which has been disputed for decades for Montenegro.
What did Montenegro agree with Republika Srpska?
Clarifying the agreement with the officials of the Republika Srpska, an entity in Bosnia and Herzegovina, State Secretary Danilo Mrdak says that an innovative environmental impact assessment of the Buk Bijela projects will arrive these days in order to comply with the ESPOO convention (UN Convention on Environmental Impact Assessment across State Borders), and that a public hearing will then be organized in Montenegro:
"From September 1, a public hearing will be held in Montenegro on the Document on Transboundary Impact on the Environment, as required by the ESPOO Convention. Everything will be publicly available and there is no fraud," says Mrdak.
National institutions, ministries, agencies as well as citizens should give their opinion on that document, and the remarks will be sent to the authorities of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which will forward them to the Republika Srpska for clarification.
Mrdak also states that an additional geodetic recording of the border section between Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina has been agreed:
"It is the part where Piva and Tara meet, and where the Drina River begins. And we will clearly see where the elevation of the overflow is and where it is reflected on the territory of Montenegro. Even with catastrophic hundred-year floods, when you have enormous inflows that cannot be discharged and the dam overflows, even in that situation we will not have a single meter of artificial lake in Montenegro. Under those conditions, there are no problems for the construction of a hydroelectric power plant".
An idea two decades old
The idea of building the Buk Bijela hydroelectric power plant on the Drina dates back to 2002. After numerous protests by the non-governmental environmental sector and alarming of the international community, several documents were adopted.
The Tara Canyon is protected from devastation by a UNESCO and World Union for Nature Conservation report published in 2005, in which strong opposition was expressed to the construction of a hydropower facility on the Drina, which would submerge 12 to 18 kilometers of the canyon, which is of inestimable biological and aesthetic value under the protection of UNESCO.
Also, the Declaration on the Protection of the Tara, which was adopted by the Parliament of Montenegro in 2005, permanently prohibits any interventions or works in the canyon of this river.
At that time, the Democratic Party of Socialists was in power, which lost the elections in August last year, after which the Democrats, the Citizens' Movement URA and the pro-Serbian Democratic Front, which has close political relations with the authorities of Republika Srpska, formed the government.
Danilo Mrdak says that the current project of the Buk Bijela hydroelectric power plant is completely different from the one from 2002, when the dam was supposed to be so high that it would flood 18 kilometers of the Tara canyon, that is, the territory of Montenegro:
"After Montenegro left that project and the Declaration on the Protection of Tara was adopted, the height of the future dam was lowered in the new project, because we do not want even one meter in Montenegro to be submerged."
Environmentalists against Buk Bijela
Environmental non-governmental organizations have been against the construction of the Buk Bijela hydroelectric plant for years, precisely because of the danger that the protected area of the deepest canyon in Europe will be devastated.
Azra Vuković from the non-governmental organization Green Home told RFE/RL that it is impossible to prove that the Buk Bijela hydroelectric power plant will not have an impact on Tara:
"We have the opinions of experts and professors from various universities who indicate that the Buk Bijela project would have a negative impact on Tara. We must not forget the fact that the Tara River has multiple protections, is within the national park, belongs to the UNESCO Man and the Biosphere program, and is a potential natural habitat. All this could be at risk if that project comes to life, which we cannot accept at all".
The representative of the World Wide Fund for Nature in Montenegro (WWF Adria) Milija Čabarkapa welcomes the negotiations between the authorities of Montenegro and Republika Srpska on the cross-border impact of the hydroelectric power plant:
"It is good that there are talks and an initiative from the Montenegrin side to revise the project documentation in order to see if the hydroelectric power plant will have an impact on Tara. And what is happening in depth and whether these negotiations will have an effect, I cannot comment because I do not have the project documentation".
International Arbitration
Cross-border impacts are a subject of international law, Professor Nebojša Vučinić told RFE/RL in response to the question of how Montenegro could protect the Tara canyon if the construction of the Buk Bijela hydroelectric plant were to begin despite Montenegro's potential opposition:
"Other states cannot carry out activities and actions without causing damage to a third state. This is prohibited under international law. The first step is direct diplomatic negotiations with interested parties. If that does not give results, proceedings can be initiated on the international level, due to the fact that the Tara canyon is protected by UNESCO."
Professor Vučinić says that international arbitration can also be initiated against countries that harm the interests of Montenegro by building a hydroelectric power plant:
"Montenegro should carefully analyze the impact of the hydroelectric power plant and alert the international public. There were disputes before the International Court of Justice between Slovakia and Hungary regarding the construction of a hydroelectric power plant on the Danube. So there are those mechanisms".
State Secretary in the Ministry of Ecology, Danilo Mrdak, says that the Buk Bijela hydropower plant project is in the main design phase, that is, that the detailed design has not yet been completed. He estimates that the actual construction of the hydroelectric power plant could begin in two years:
"We have enough time for that detailed project to take into account all our positions and ensure that not a single meter of Tara and Piva will be submerged during those hundred-year waters".
And in June last year, the Center for the Environment and the Aarhus Center from Bosnia and Herzegovina, together with the organizations Green Home and Ozone from Montenegro, submitted a complaint to the Committee for the Implementation of the ESPOO Convention on the hydroelectric power project on the upper Drina.
The complaint states that new hydropower plants on the Drina River could further threaten the protected Tara Canyon in Montenegro, which is on the UNESCO World Heritage List and is part of the Durmitor National Park.
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