The administration of Kolašin claims that the construction of tourist facilities in Bjelasica will not threaten the city's water supply.
According to data from the study on environmental impact assessment, most tourist facilities will be supplied with water from catchment sources, or from the Paljevina River. All these facilities are at a higher altitude than the source of the city's water supply.
The local administration has repeatedly claimed that the abundance of the city's water supply will not be threatened by the new facilities in Bjelasica, and that the springs that will be exploited have no connection with the one in Mušovića Rijeka.
However, in the technical conditions, one of the investors, from the company "Vodovod i kanalizacija", raised the question of the impact of spring capture on the city's water source.
"Problems can arise with the capture of additional amounts of water and the construction of water intakes in the protection zone of the Mušovica Rijeka water source. There may be a change and cutting of underground streams, which may affect the yield of the water sources of the city's water supply system," it says in the technical conditions.
The city is supplied with water from a spring in the village of Mušovića Rijeka, which is located about 3,5 kilometers east of Kolašin. It is the catchment area of the Svinjača River, which is formed by the Ljevaja River, which rises on the northern side of the catchment area, and the Paljivina River, which originates on the southern side. The group of springs, which are used for the water supply of Kolašin, are located at about 1.070 meters above sea level.
Hotel D is being built by the company Ski Resort-Kolašin and will be part of the planned tourist complex Kolašin 1450. It is planned that the entire complex, in the immediate vicinity of the Paljevinska River, will be supplied with water from a common reservoir at 1.520 meters above sea level.
One of the options for the water supply of the hotel, which is being built by Best Montengro Investments, also at an elevation higher than the city spring, is to capture the spring in the bed of the Paljevnsa river. That spring is located about 800 meters downstream from the location of the hotel.
Similar solutions, according to reports on environmental impact assessment, are planned for other facilities in that part of Bjelasica, or along the road to the ski resorts.
Official measurements of the water source in Mušovića Rijeka were made in the 70s and 80s of the last century, when it was determined that "the minimum flow, that is, the useful yield, is 170 l/s". However, in October 2008, the Hydrometeorological Institute measured a yield of 78 liters per second.
The last measurements were made 11 years ago, and they, according to the Kolašin local administration, once again confirm the values determined at the end of the last century. A more recent detailed study on the sanitary-technical protection zones of the location from which Kolašin is supplied with water has never been conducted. The zoning made four decades ago is still in effect.
Some of the hotels and mountain resorts that are being built on Bjelasica, as written in the project documentation, are located in the II sanitary protection zone of the city's water source.
The authors of the Elaboration on the Environmental Impact Assessment of the Kolašin 1450 Mountain Center project suggest that the project is a sanitary protection zone from 1980 and that it should be urgently harmonized with the current Rulebook from 2009. This work has not yet been completed.
The company "Vodovod i Kanalizacija" recently disclosed that the state planned a large project, which will create conditions for artificial snowmaking of ski slopes, but also for increasing the capacity of the city's water supply.
Their intention, according to the conceptual solution, is to bring the water of the Ljevaja river "along the mountain" to the ski resort with pipes, and direct the other part towards the pipes that supply Kolašin with water.
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