The struggle to save the rivers of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which are under terrible attacks from investors in small hydropower plants, is probably one of the struggles that has united people in the recent history of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The Coalition for the Protection of Rivers of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which gathers around 30 organizations, supports local communities across the country who have been fighting for more than a decade to save our wild, drinkable rivers. The struggle has made results when it comes to the legal ban on the future construction of small hydropower plants – river protectors have come just one step away from the big goal – the final ban on the construction of new small hydropower plants in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH).
So far, we have all learned that 119 small hydropower plants have been built in Bosnia and Herzegovina, 69 of them in FBiH, and that they produce negligible amounts of electricity (only 2.54% in 2021), while having a devastating impact on river ecosystems.
Residents of Fojnica and Brave Women of Kruscica near Vitez were on duty on the banks of the Zeljeznica and Kruscica, preventing heavy machines from entering their riverbeds. Resistance continued in other locations such as the Buna canals near Mostar, Jablanica, East Sarajevo, the Neretva valley near Konjic, Donji Vakuf, Foca, Travnik, Kakanj, etc.). Citizens of the river that represent life are defended on the ground by bodies, at courts and in the media.
Photos and videos of dry riverbeds and irretrievably destroyed former natural pearls shook us all because rivers are life and their salvation concerns all of us – all civil society organizations, academics, peasants, women, men, youth and children!
We, the undersigned organizations, join the appeal of the members of the Coalition for the Protection of Rivers of Bosnia and Herzegovina and call on Mr. Tomislav Martinovic and Mr. Aljos Campara, Chairman and Vice Speaker of the FBiH House of Peoples, to urgently put the FBiH Law on Amendments to the FBiH Electricity Law, preferably at the June session, and the delegates to adopt them in the form as the House of Representatives did on June 6 this year.
FREEDOM TO RIVERS! #VodajeZakon #stopmhe
Association Network for Building Peace
