Photo: EPA-EFE
Actor Leonardo DiCaprio once again showed on his Instagram profile that he is closely following the fight for rivers in Bosnia and Herzegovina, praising this time the success of citizens in preventing the construction of two small hydropower plants on the Neretvica River. The Ministry of Physical Planning has revoked building permits for two small hydropower projects on, as he wrote, the “beautiful river Neretvica”.
“The local community and their NGOs “Pusti me da tečem” and “Zeleni Neretva”, represented by the legal team of the Aarhaus Center, organized protests over these two projects. In addition, the community has formally asked the cantonal prosecutor’s office to consider filing criminal charges against public officials who violated the law by issuing permits without consulting the public,” he explained the course of events and the way in which the citizens won.
He also stated that the local communities on the Neretvica River are fiercely opposed to any construction projects on the river.
Namely, despite the fact that the construction of small hydroelectric power plants Srijanski most and Gorovnik was almost a “done deal”, citizens and activists still managed to preserve the river Neretvica by winning the revocation of building permits for both SHPPs.
