Residents of the village of Kaludra near Beran hope that the new authorities will audit and review all concession contracts and make a declaration on the permanent ban on the construction of small power plants on Montenegrin watercourses, and if this does not happen, they will take measures themselves to defend the Kaludar River.
The government of former Prime Minister Duško Marković authorized the outgoing Minister of Economy Dragica Sekulić to sign a contract, i.e. amendments to the concession contract, with the company Hidroenergija Montenegro for the construction of small hydroelectric power plants (MHP) on the Kaludarska River watercourse in the municipality of Berane, just ten days before the vote on the new government.
"We believe that this is now the end of the story, but we are still ready to defend the Kaludarska river by all means," said the president of the Beran local community, Milić Ralević.
He adds that the residents of the village of Kaludra are completely unanimous in their decision not to allow the construction of small hydropower plants on this river.
"And not only residents from our village, but also from the neighboring villages of Zagorje and Donja Ržanica. And they completely joined us earlier in our resistance to that plan," says Ralević.
The former government decided that with the new contract, the 30-year concession starts on May 7, 2016, which means that Hidroenergija Montenegro has a concession until 2046. According to the original contract from 2014, the concession would expire in 2044.
In the village of Kaludra, they now say that they did everything to delay the start of the works.
"We were having a problem with the access road. They then thought of breaking a new path, but in the end it didn't pay off. That's why they were now determined to start the construction of at least this small hydroelectric power plant that does not pass through private properties. I hope that this is their last maneuver", Ralevic said.
He states that the owners of Hidroenergija Montenegro promised hills and valleys, but that the local population saw that nothing would come of it.
"We have the example of the neighboring village of Šekular, where the nature has been completely devastated and a great deal of environmental damage has been done, and the locals have no benefit whatsoever. It is clear to us that it is only about enriching a few people who are the owners of that company", says Ralević.
According to him, no one from the local population is employed in Šekular, who has not already resolved their employment status.
"They also told us that they would employ people, that they would reduce unemployment. And we know very well how they did it with the neighbors. There, they employed as security guards only a few pensioners or younger people who have regulated disabled status at the labor office and that issue was resolved, so they don't have to insure them," claims Ralević.
The owners of Hidroenergia are Oleg Obradović and Ranko Radović. Obradović through Hemera has a 40 percent share, and Radović a 60 percent share. Radović bought those 60 percent shares from Ranko Ubović and Aleksandar Mijajlović. Before that, he was their executive director at Hidroenergia Montenegro.
The company Hidoenergija Montenegro was founded precisely in Berane in the fall of 2007, while DPS was in power in that northern municipality. Then businessman Oleg Obradović came to his hometown and through the company Hemera Capital made an agreement with three municipalities in the north-east of Montenegro to grant concessions for the construction of small hydroelectric power plants in their territories, offering them in return a share of shares in the joint company.
Later, however, it turned out that, according to the review in the Central Register of Business Entities, the Municipality of Berane, as well as the other two municipalities, Andrijevica and Plav, were never registered as owners of Hidroenergija Montenegro.
These three municipalities were supposed to be the owners of ten percent of the shares, and to share that cake proportionally to the participation and the number of hydropower plants in their territory, but in the end, due to acrobatics in the Central Registry, which were never explained, they were left with nothing. The media previously reported that the plan of Hidroenergia Montenegro is to build a total of 13 mini hydroelectric power plants in the Beran municipality, and the value of the investment is 28 million euros. Then it was announced that Hidroenergija Montenegro received the concession for 27 years. All locations are in the Lima basin. Five in the area of the Šekularska river, and as many as eight in Bistrica, Beran.
Now it has become known that as many as seven small power plants on the watercourse of the Kaludar River were subsequently included in that plan.
The expectations of the locals from the new Government are high. The promises are also big.
"Until now, only privileged individuals benefited from the construction of small hydropower plants, often through corruption and nepotism, by obtaining concessions for the construction of these facilities on our rivers, all to the detriment of citizens who paid these costs through electricity bills... This The government will issue a declaration on the permanent ban on the construction of small hydropower plants on Montenegrin watercourses", are the words of Prime Minister Zdravko Krivokapić from his exposé.
This is also the promise that was first made by the leader of the Black and White coalition, and the current Deputy Prime Minister, Dritan Abazović.
There is no water left in the riverbeds even for tadpoles
"With that, practically the entire river would be in pipes. The water intake of the last hydroelectric power plant would be near the Čelije monastery, and the mechanical plant down by Djevojački krš. There is state land everywhere on that stretch, and that's why they thought it would be easy for them. Of course we wouldn't allow that either. Our monastery is there and its surroundings would be devastated," says Ralević.
It was clear to the residents of Kaludra that shooting against the horned river is not easy because of what this company has already done on other rivers in the municipality of Beran. That is why they feared that the state would not come to the aid of Hydroenergy with all its mechanisms.
"Residents of other villages also protested and defended the rivers, but we see at the end what is left of those rivers that were mountain beauties, full of wild brown trout. In the end, there was no water left in the troughs even for the tadpole. The rivers, however, went into the pipes. We were afraid that this would happen to our river as well", say residents of Kaludra.
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