Three small hydroelectric power plants (SHPs), whose construction has been ongoing for more than a year on the Sutjeska River, on the border of the Sutjeska National Park, have muddied its sources and cut off its flow.
Residents of the village of Izgori, which is located near these hydroelectric power plants, tell Radio Free Europe (RSE) as they witness the destruction of water resources and infrastructure.
"The roads have been dug up, the only bridge connecting the two banks is collapsing, they damaged it by digging up gravel. There is a great danger for cars passing over it, because we have no alternative road. There is a great danger of its complete collapse. The source of the Sutjeska River is also in the village, that water has never been turbid, and now all of that has been destroyed," Miloš Elez, a resident of the village of Izgori, tells RFE/RL.
He also adds that landslides have occurred in the village.
"They dug everything up, there's our village cemetery, they dug a road under the cemetery and it's going to start collapsing. All of that is on both sides of the shore, and there are houses on the other side, considering that the houses are undermined, it's a matter of time before they and other property collapse," Elez tells RFE/RL.
The investor of the small hydropower plants is "Hidroenergy doo Laktaši", a company belonging to the Austrian company "GLA Holding". The company did not respond to RFE/RL's inquiry about the construction works of these hydropower plants.
The concession for their construction was granted by the Government of Republika Srpska, namely the Ministry of Energy and Mining of the RS.
As previously stated on the Austrian company's official website, the hydroelectric power plants consist of three separate small hydroelectric power plants on the Sutjeska River and its tributary the Jabušnica.
The National Park has been a protected area of the Bosnian entity of RS since 2013 and includes the Tjentište Memorial Complex, which was declared a cultural asset of exceptional importance in 2009.
The national park includes a strictly protected reserve, the Perućica rainforest, as well as parts of the Maglić and Volujak mountains.
Environmental permit revoked
In early April, the Banja Luka District Court annulled the renewed environmental permit for one of three small hydropower plants, "Sutjeska 2B", located along the border of the Sutjeska National Park.
The lawsuit was filed by the Center for the Environment due to a series of irregularities in the process of renewing the environmental permit, which is issued by the Ministry of Physical Planning, Construction and Ecology of Republika Srpska. The ministry did not respond to RFE/RL's inquiry about the next steps regarding the construction of hydroelectric power plants on the Sutjeska River.
The explanation of the Banja Luka court stated that the change in ownership structure was not done in a proper and legal manner, that is, that both the owner and the authorized representative were changed several times during the validity of the environmental permit.
Vladimir Topić from the Center for the Environment tells RFE/RL that this is a hydroelectric power plant located at the very beginning of the Sutjeska National Park, and emphasizes that this facility has no place in that zone.
Sutjeska National Park covers the territory of three municipalities in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH): Foča, Gacko and Kalinovik. It begins in the village of Sastavci, at the bridge where the Jabušnica River flows into the Sutjeska River.
"There is enormous pollution of the Sutjeska River and the water is literally completely turbid and dirty, flowing through the entire National Park. Gravel was also excavated, these works were essentially used to extract material from the Sutjeska River. One river is being destroyed twice, it is being extracted from one location to put another part of the river in concrete, it is beyond any norms, procedures, regulations and common sense to do something like that," Topić told RFE/RL.
According to the latest report on the work of the Concessions Commission of the Republika Srpska from 2023, it is stated that the concessionaire, or investor "Hidroenergy doo Laktaši", holds a construction and environmental permit, and that certain changes are underway in the existing contract. What changes are in question is not stated in the report on the work of the Concessions Commission of the RS.
What about the environmental impact study?
All work being done on the Sutjeska River and its tributary Jabušnica is being done without an environmental impact study, Topić tells RFE/RL.
"Unfortunately, the studies they have are old studies and some permits were issued for them, and later those permits were revoked. There is no adequate study, no study was done at all. New studies that would look at this cumulative impact on the environment do not exist at all," he adds.
The Environmental Impact Study for the SHP "Sutjeska 2A and 2B" project was conducted in 2013. It is a study for two of the three small hydropower plants on the Sutjeska River.
The Banja Luka District Court also suspended the approval process for that study, following a lawsuit filed by the Environmental Center in 2015.
The 2013 study stated, among other things, that the small hydropower plant "Sutjeska 2B", for which the environmental permit was revoked, "will not have a significant impact on the landscape characteristics of this site."
It was also emphasized that the two hydroelectric power plants that were the subject of the Study are located partly in the zone of the "Sutjeska" national park, and partly in the area where its expansion is planned.
"The narrower area of the planned SHP 'Sutjeska 2a' and the wider area of the planned SHP 'Sutjeska 2b', according to the Spatial Plan for the Special Area of the Sutjeska National Park, were part of the planned expansion zone of the Sutjeska National Park and represented a second-level protection zone," it was stated, among other things, in that impact study.
Incidentally, the spatial plan for the Sutjeska National Park from 1986 expired in 2000, and a new one is in the process and has not yet been adopted by either the Government or the RS Parliament.
"Work will not be suspended"
In a response to RFE/RL, the Republic Inspectorate stated that this institution "has no legal basis to prohibit or suspend the execution of works," because the investor, as they said, has a building permit.
"If the facility being built has a building permit issued by the competent authority, and if the works are carried out in accordance with it, the urban planning and construction inspector has no legal basis to prohibit or suspend the construction works. In this specific case, the investor has the building permits," the Inspectorate told RFE/RL.
They note that citizen associations and environmental activists have raised objections to the permit for the construction of the small hydropower plant on the Sutjeska River and its tributary Jabušnica, but also, among other things, due to the proximity of the national park.
"This body has no knowledge that the investor has expanded to include the Sutjeska National Park," the Inspectorate added.
They also say that the urban planning and construction inspector does not have the authority to review the legality of the issued building permit.
The competence of the construction inspector relates to periodic inspections during construction, where it is checked whether the works are carried out in accordance with the issued building permit and technical documentation.
Operation of mini hydroelectric power plants called into question?
The advantages of building small hydroelectric power plants are most often felt at the beginning, while the disadvantages only become apparent later, Ognjen Bonaći, a civil engineer and expert in hydrology and water resources management from Croatia, tells RFE/RL.
Bonaći is also a professor emeritus at the Faculty of Civil Engineering, Architecture and Geodesy, University of Split.
"Each case is individual, so an assessment should be made for each individual small hydropower plant. This is usually not done, or dubious and corrupt environmental impact studies are used, commissioned and paid for by the investor," he adds.
He points out that investors will benefit in the short term from the construction of mini hydroelectric power plants.
"They will bring problems to the state and the environment a little later. These are sensitive systems that need to be maintained. Maintenance is expensive and complex. When the profit is less than the costs, the investor abandons and neglects the project. And then problems arise, often unsolvable," says Bonaći, emphasizing that the value and role of small hydropower plants are far overestimated and that their development is unsustainable.
"Many of them are experiencing more frequent and prolonged droughts. The operation of many small hydropower plants may be put in question, both due to global warming and due to a series of interventions on small watercourses, which are reducing the amount of water in them," says Professor Bonaći.
So far, 119 small hydropower plants have been built in BiH, of which 69 are in the Federation of BiH and 50 in the Republika Srpska.
According to environmental organizations, construction of an additional 354 is in preparation.
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