The state of Montenegro is in favor of an agreement regarding the solution to the issue of using the potential of Lake Bileć, but the other states of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia were not cooperative in this regard. The right of the state of Montenegro is to use water on its territory, but our position is that all possibilities for agreement should be exhausted before unilateral decisions.
This was said officially to the "News" in the Ministry of Energy and Mining.
Elektroprivrede Republika Srpska (ERS) manages two of the four hydroelectric plants from this system that uses water from Bileć Lake, the third hydroelectric plant is "Dubrovnik" where ERS and Hrvatska elektroprivreda share the generated electricity, while the fourth "Capljina" is located in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
All these hydropower plants, built in the period from 1965 to 1981, fully or partially use water from Lake Bileć, part of which belongs to Montenegro, which did not participate in their construction at the time, but neither approved the construction nor waived its rights.
"Vijesti" sought the position of the Ministry of Energy, which is headed by the minister Saša Mujović whether that department considers that Montenegro has the right to a part of the produced electricity from the hydroelectric power plant system in Trebišnjica.
"The issue of demarcation of cross-border rivers, division of their potential and resolution of the arising disputes is no longer of a subjective nature, but is governed by the provisions of several international conventions, rules, declarations and charters, all of which are based on the principle of "reasonable and fair use of water", they told this department.
As they clarified, in the case of Montenegro, two documents, the Helsinki Rules on the use of the waters of international rivers - the Water Committee of the World Association for International Law (1966-1996) and the Convention on the Law of Non-navigable Uses of International Watercourses - the UN Commission on International Law (1997) are relevant )
"Helsinki Rules on the Use of the Waters of International Rivers - Water Committee of the World Association for International Law (1966-1996) Article IV defines "Each country in the basin, within its territory, has the right to a reasonable and fair share in the beneficial uses of the waters of the international basin area" , and Article V "What is a reasonable and fair share in the sense of the rules from Article IV is determined in the light of all relevant factors in each individual case..." Relevant factors that will be taken into account, by which their list is not exhausted, are - geographical characteristics of the basin , especially including the size of the catchment area on the territory of each country in the basin, the hydrological characteristics of the basin, especially including the contribution of water from each country in the basin, the possibility of compensation to one or more countries in the basin as a means of resolving conflicts between different uses", said the Ministry of Energy .
When it comes to the Convention on the Right of Non-Navigable Use of International Watercourses - the UN Commission on International Law (1997) from this Government department points to Article 5 "watercourse states shall each use the international watercourse in their own territory in a fair and reasonable manner" and Article 6 "the use of international watercourses in a fair and reasonable manner in terms of the article requires taking into account all relevant factors and circumstances... The weight to be given to each of the factors is determined by comparing the importance of that factor with the importance of other relevant factors. In determining what is reasonable and fair use, all relevant factors will be considered together, and the conclusion will be drawn on the basis of the whole".
"It is considered that every expert processor, joint commission, International Court of Justice or selected arbitration in the procedure of fair regulation of the distribution of the hydropower potential of Bileć Lake and the Trebišnjica basin, as an international river, would start from these provisions and resolve it as a case for itself, among others, and from the following reasons that Montenegro, as a coastal state, has never given written consent for submerging its territory with the waters of Lake Bileć, that the representative of Montenegro in the Commission for the reception of the hydropower system of HPP Trebišnjica reserved the right of his country to subsequently submit a request for the protection of its interests, which the state of Montenegro, as the holder of the belonging part of the water of Bileć Lake as a public good, has not realized its rights belonging to the downstream power plants for 58 years. In addition to the fact that Lake Bilećko and all four downstream power plants are part of the unique energy valorization project of the waters of the international Trebišnjica river, which was implemented within the SFRY as a joint state of Montenegro, BiH and Croatia, and that all the basic production performances of the four downstream power plants are provided by the waters of Bilećko lake and on that basis the production of HPP Dubrovnik for a long period of time was shared between Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina 22:78 percent", emphasized the Ministry of Energy, adding that with ERS there are announcements of talks regarding this issue, and when they are made concrete, the public will be informed.
When asked whether the possible implementation of HPP "Boka" with water from Lake Bileć would require the consent of Elektroprivreda Republika Srpska or some other authorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Ministry of Energy said that the problem is that there is no agreement, that is, agreement on how much belongs to whom water potential.
"In previous decades, Montenegro actualized the issues of concluding agreements with the RS and Croatia, which it already has with Serbia and Albania. Twice, in 2004 and 2010, Montenegro was on the threshold of concluding that contract. Even in 2010, a draft contract on water was adopted, which was sent to BiH, and to which we have not received an answer to this day. The assumption is that the problem here is precisely the distribution of the hydro potential of Lake Bileć, said the Ministry of Energy.
Minister Mujović raised the issue of Lake Bileć at a meeting in Belgrade this week with Dubravko Đedović Handanović, Minister of Mining and Energy of Serbia and Petr Đokić, Minister of Energy and Mining of the Republic of Srpska.
"The best test of our joint capacity and ability to cooperate and to improve that cooperation even more is the issue of Bileć Lake. I am very happy to be at the negotiating table with Minister Đokić, who expressed his good will to start solving this issue, and I expect the offer of my colleagues from Republika Srpska, to see what steps we will take in that direction and how we will solve this common issue", he stressed. is Mujović.
About 24 percent of the total Bilec accumulation belongs to Montenegro
It is estimated that the area of the Bileć lake basin, as they said in the ministry, belongs to Montenegro about 40 percent and that the volume of the reservoir belonging to Montenegro is 24 percent of the total Bileć reservoir.
"This data is the result of the sub-sectoral study (2005), which was done for the needs of the Government of Montenegro by the experts of the Government and the University of Montenegro, and where the criterion of "the size of the volume share of the total water potential from the territory of Montenegro" was correctly applied. The water management base of Montenegro provides information on the size of the catchment area of Montenegro towards Trebišnjica of 541 km2, on which 936 hm3/year falls. of water, from which 755 hm3/year flows into the Trebišnjica hydrosystem. water, i.e. the inflow from Montenegrin territory is calculated in the amount of 24 m3/s", said the ministry.
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