Tons of floating waste on the Drina River near Višegrad have been being removed from the river by workers at the local hydroelectric power plant for a month and a half, but this is being slowed down by the large amounts of waste that arrive daily by the river. Plastic bottles, footballs, household appliances, trees, plastic bags… This waste covers the emerald green color of the Drina River, the longest river in Bosnia and Herzegovina, not far from the Višegrad Hydroelectric Power Plant dam. This environmental incident is repeated year after year and does not only disturb environmental activists. Human negligence and illegal landfills along tributaries in Serbia and Montenegro have been causing pollution of the Drina River for decades.
Problems from the beginning
The Višegrad hydroelectric power plant was built in 1989 during the Yugoslav era, and problems with waste accumulation began even then. In recent decades, the catenary, which was built by the hydroelectric power plant workers so that its operation would not be jeopardized, has been collecting tons of waste in the winter months. Since mid-December 2025, there have been huge amounts of waste on the Drina River, so that in certain parts of the river there is garbage from bank to bank.
"Everything you can imagine from animal and organic waste ends up in the Drina River. There is also chemistry, plastic. A big problem is also precipitation, or large trees that, under a large surge of water, can break the catenary, as happened in 2021," Dejan Furtula, an activist of the Eco Action from Višegrad, tells DW. He looks at the waste that permeates the Drina with sadness in his eyes and says that it will take months to remove it from the Drina. "Only the HPP on the Drina cleans the garbage, although 85 percent of the waste comes from outside the borders of BiH," Furtula adds. He estimates that the HPP Višegrad catenary currently contains several thousand tons of waste.
"The amount of floating waste that is removed from the lake of the HPP Višegrad annually is 6.000-8.000 cubic meters," adds Darko Frganja, head of the quality and environmental protection department of the HPP on the Drina River. There is no official act that defines the obligation that the HPP Višegrad is responsible for cleaning up floating waste, but they do it anyway. "It costs us 50 to 200 thousand marks annually." Another problem is that the waste is disposed of at a nearby illegal landfill, which is located just a few meters from the Drina River, so the citizens of Višegrad are suffocating in toxins that are produced by combustion. "The fish stock in the Drina is also at risk," adds Furtula.
Activists have previously warned that burned toxins are reaching the Drina River through groundwater.
"Burning such waste in landfills has far more harmful consequences than the waste itself. There are a number of harmful chemical reactions and harmful gases that are produced by burning plastic and other waste. In addition to the fact that these harmful by-products of plastic combustion are entered into the body through breathing, they are also entered through the consumption of food and water on which such particles fall. Very little is said about this, although the consequences can be fatal for the body," explains Robert Oroz, an activist with the Atelje za društve promjene foundation.
Where do tons of waste in the Drina come from?
DW's interlocutors agree that most of the waste comes from illegal dumps in neighboring countries: Montenegro and Serbia. When river levels rise due to hydrological conditions, the rivers pull the waste into their beds, carrying it with their current to Višegrad.
"The largest amounts of floating waste are brought by the Lim River from Serbia, 45 percent, the Tara River from Montenegro, 40 percent, and the remaining 15 percent, from Bosnia and Herzegovina," according to data from the Višegrad Hydroelectric Power Plant.
The relevant ministry in the Republika Srpska government says that most of the waste comes from Montenegro. "According to the information we have, Serbia has closed the unsanitary Stanjevine landfill, which was part of the problem, but these days, as in previous years, we are witnessing huge amounts of waste coming from Montenegro, through the Lim River to the Drina River," says Gorjana Rosić, senior associate for public relations at the Republika Srpska Ministry of Spatial Planning, Construction and Ecology.
Floating waste, which comes from the territory of BiH, is mainly wood. "Communal waste landfills are further away from watercourses, and some are even regulated, such as in the municipalities of Foča and Goražde," says Frganja.
What is the solution?
"We cannot solve this problem on our own. The main activity of our company is the production of electricity, and we have to fight this problem," explains Frganja.
Many environmental organizations have offered various solutions so far, but the authorities have not listened. The association headed by Furtula received a project of 105,000 euros for the construction of catenary systems in other municipalities, satellite monitoring of waste and the like. "Since we are a small association, we did not have the necessary 20 percent of the funds to participate."
The Municipality of Višegrad was not willing to get involved in the implementation of the project. "Millions are needed for a systemic and permanent solution," Furtula added.
The Višegrad Hydroelectric Power Plant, which has been tasked with cleaning up the Drina River, says that the solution to the problem should not be sought in Višegrad, but in the municipalities from which the waste comes.
"The solution to the problem is to dispose of waste in landfills in upstream municipalities, not in the river," Frganja told DW. He added that illegal landfills exist in almost every municipality, and the reasons for their emergence are the lack of a comprehensive waste management system, namely: "Insufficient number of sanitary landfills, avoidance by unscrupulous companies and citizens to dispose of their waste in regular landfills in order to avoid paying fees, as well as the lack of awareness among citizens about the importance of environmental protection."
The Ministry says that complete rehabilitation is possible if waste disposal in the floodplains of rivers is prevented. "A possible solution could be the initiative of public companies or local communities, which would be the carriers of projects aimed at preventive collection and disposal of waste before it reaches reservoirs. However, it is emphasized that the source of waste is extremely diffuse and that the problem requires a systematic and continuous solution," Gorjana Rosić explains to DW.
Last meeting seven years ago
The last meeting of experts from the three countries was held almost seven years ago. Expert teams from the three countries met in 2019 with the intention of finding a permanent solution, but the COVID-19 pandemic has stopped any agreement. “The authorities, year after year, mostly only superficially engage in this issue, without any concrete action,” warns Oroz.
The Ministry of Spatial Planning, Construction and Ecology of the Republika Srpska says that they have repeatedly requested urgent measures to permanently resolve the problem of endangering the operation of the Višegrad HPP and pollution of the Drina River. The request also asked for the urgent continuation of the activities of the established expert working groups.
The requests were sent to the Ministry of Environmental Protection of the Republic of Serbia, the Ministry of Ecology, Spatial Planning and Urbanism of Montenegro, and the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations of BiH.
"The Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations initiated a meeting in Višegrad, but it did not take place because the participation of all those invited was not confirmed, primarily from Montenegro, from whose territory the largest amounts of waste come," says Rosić.
While waiting for goodwill from the neighborhood, the Drina remains a large floating landfill that citizens and activists look at with despair without any real power to do anything.
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