For us, nature is understood as something that should last and exist only as long as we exist, and we are not interested in millions of years before us, nor millions of years after us. Only millions of euros and other currencies.
Written by: Ramiz Huremagić
One of the more serious devastations of the Una River in recent history is underway. This time, the bed of the Una river is under attack, at its very source, in the village of Donja Suvaja, part of the town of Srb, which belongs to the municipality of Gračac, in Zadar County, in our neighboring Republic of Croatia, a proud member of the European family. Let’s also note that this area is populated predominantly by the Serbian population, what is left of them, and that the source of the Una and its surroundings enjoy special protection at the level of the European Union, as part of the Natura 2000 ecological network of protected areas. At least that’s what the paper says. For whom these data are more important than simple common sense which says that this is the source of one of the most beautiful rivers in Europe with the fifth deepest source.
A phantom investor with a phantom contractor, all from the same owner, registered at the address of the crime scene itself, in a house whose owners claim that they have never heard of either the investor or the contractor’s company, they started earthworks (read: brutal destruction of watercourses and river beds Une) on the construction of some kind of mini hydropower plant. All this with phantom construction documentation issued back in 2016 and renewed a few years later. Of course, incomplete and deficient, without an environmental impact study and without an appropriate location permit. In the best spirit of applying the European acquis. Probably, extremely high-quality material with great potential for a good corruption trial.
Data on the strength and capacity of that electric power facility is not available or known anywhere. However, taking similar examples in other locations, it is possible to state that this is a production facility equal to some average solar power plant, with a capacity of anywhere between 5 kilowatts and 10 megawatts.
For the sake of comparison, let’s assume roughly that the consumption of an average household is somewhere around 10 thousand kilowatts of electricity per year, or 10 megawatts. So, one mini hydroelectric power plant can satisfy one household with its daily production throughout the year, that is, 365 households per year. You can also meet the electricity needs of that household with about twenty solar panels with a capacity of 300-400 watts per panel, that is, for some 15-20 thousand KM worth of investment per household.
This is all rough and tentative, and purely serves illustrative purposes to make it easier to understand what is “gained” by building a mini hydropower plant at the cost of the permanent destruction of a zero-category natural asset.
His Holiness “Water Well”
The Water Law of the FBiH defines a water resource as a set of land parcels on which water is permanently or occasionally present, together with the basic bed of the watercourse and the coastal zone from the coast border, i.e. pronounced morphological changes (width 15m for watercourses of category I, i.e. 5m for watercourses II category), as well as land submerged by stagnant water, and abandoned riverbeds that are occasionally flooded.” Someone would say “clear as day”.
In our country, a water asset is something that is possessed, conquered and represents a matter of prestige. Like all other examples when nature is used for the purpose of self-promotion and/or self-benefit (see under forests and clear cutting, apartment building in Bjelašnica and Jahorina, mining of ore around Sanski Most, etc.).
For us, nature is understood as something that should last and exist only as long as we exist, and we are not interested in millions of years before us, nor millions of years after us. Only millions of euros and other currencies.
These legal, famous “15 meters” are mere fluff and an illusion. Hawthorn’s stake in the heart of the rule of law in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The biggest hole in paper ever written.
There are rare examples when face, honor, morality, honesty and humanity stand up against such social anomalies. Not so long ago, we also witnessed the brave women of Kruščica near Vitez, who guarded their river for over 500 days and nights, by blocking the bridge, in order to prevent the construction of a mini-hydroelectric power station. Unfortunately, this was not the case with Doljanka, Ugra, Uloga. We are always waiting for some law, agreements on competences and duties. About who and when to react. Pass another law that will never be respected by anyone.
But really, do we need laws to take care of nature? Can’t we have our conscience to judge us and guide us in our behavior and relationship with nature. Mini hydropower plants are nothing new, Europe is full of them. And there they are, let their activists deal with them. So that it doesn’t turn out, it can only be found here and nowhere else. Why must we always take the worst from others. Why not sometimes pick up some other people’s wisdom and not just stupidity.
And you can really benefit from nature. In addition to health, spiritual, aesthetic or healing benefits, the benefit can also be financial, while at the same time preserving and taking care of nature, and in no way, in fact, destroying it. For example, income from fly-fishing, i.e. recreational fishing, brings over 300 million euros to the Republic of Ireland, over 500 million euros to Denmark, with every fish caught ending up back in the water.
Can Una forgive Krajina?
Today, here in Krajina, we are reacting to something in the neighboring country, where our beauty Una is born and starts her magnificent journey. Which is completely legitimate, right and human. Always stand up whenever it’s about something like that.
However, the accent is on this “always”. Because it’s always not exactly every time. And there we skillfully developed a selective approach and our own systems of justification and valorization of some other acts of vandalism.
When we restrain the Una, in its upper reaches above and below Bihać, by building massive concrete walls, stairs, moorings, swimming pools with an infinite edge above the Una itself, cottages, villas and mansions, caricatured and morbid dwellings, wanton and brutal construction and violation of the protected water good, we commit two crimes – the earthly one, prescribed by the laws of this country, and the more terrible one – human and universal – we encroach on nature and injure it like there is no tomorrow. This also applies to the other towns downstream, except for Cazin, which treats its 10-11 kilometers of Una coast exclusively as if the Una were flowing under someone else’s nose. While Bosanska Krupa strives to be representative after the example of Bihać, the banks of the Una and in its area are open and a permanent museum display of vandalism under the open sky.
But. It’s not a crime. With the above, Una is not threatened. Most of the people of this region perceive it that way and have such a relationship with it. Everyone would like to somehow have their own way out of Una. To wet their own feet, in their own possession, in their own Una. To surround and cut off fishing paths with wire and concrete fences and unimpeded passage along the riverbed and coast. Don’t forget, this also falls under the legally protected “water resource”.
That doesn’t bother us when we go down the Una in rafting boats. When over 1,000 participants of the Jubilee 50th Una regatta row through the very heart of the Una National Park (in other words, an institution under the patronage of the Government of FBiH, which passed the “maxuz” lex-specialis law that should protect Una, but mainly serves as a decoration as a charity candy in a display case) and enjoys a divine view of all those enormous dwellings and millions of cubic meters of concrete, ceramic tiles and stone. And then we are surprised when Una gets “angry” and in half a year seriously floods everything around, in a Mangup-like and violent way.
It is also illustrative that at the time of the above-mentioned Una regatta itself, not a word was publicly spoken about the events in Dona Suvaja. Not boats and rafters, guests, tourists, participants – many of them in high positions and functions, all with competent ministers and directors – all stopped in one place and screamed loudly for the salvation of Una. No, that didn’t happen. And it did not go on the air, in the media space, as extremely strong and determined support. As an attitude worthy of a man with a backbone and a cheek. But the votes should have been saved for the evening concert of the folk star on the city island in Bihać, which sounded more like drunken wolves howling at the moon than a musical event.
And then the day after, in some semi-illegal manner, on Viber and FB groups, the organization of the Sunday departure of several dozen citizens and activists to Donja Suvaja begins. All with clear instructions not to say at the border why they are going, that is, so that they would not be returned and that they would not be denied entry to the Republic of Croatia.
Among them were also those who much earlier, but certainly before this one, according to the description of their jobs, should and had to react completely differently, completely more energetically and completely decisively. However, this would mean that protests were held under and in front of their own monuments to the vandalism of the Union and against the vandalism of the Union in another country. Admit it, this sounds a bit more like Monty Python to you too, doesn’t it?
It was easier this way. I was but as if I wasn’t. I pooped but it’s like I didn’t. Just enough for FB live or reels. I guess someone else will take care of the state, the legal one, the one and only. As well as Una herself, the one and only.
For the information of the curious reader, on Saturday, the jubilee 50th Una regatta continued from Bihać towards the final destination in Bosanska Krupa. Or, rather, the journey was continued by less than 20 boats that arrived in the evening in a half-empty town. Because, the Una regatta has long since become the “Bihać regatta, where the central and final event with the headliners takes place”, and from it, over the years, the “Krupska regatta”, the “Novska regatta” were born, and since last year, Cazinska. And once she rowed almost the entire Una – from Martin Brod to Novi. On this topic, that’s all for now. Like a streak.
About unity, togetherness, Krajina solidarity, honor, unity and us, angry Krajinas and the most beautiful river in the world, some other time.
What do you wash your face with?
Not so long ago, a Bosnian-Herzegovinian company advertised its cleaning product under the slogan “Cleans everything except the face”. Clear, effective and striking. Even charming.
However, what are we going to do with that face? With his own face. The one that has been rolled in tar for a long time and now feathers stick to it.
I am afraid that all the water of the Una that has ever flowed through its bed is not enough to wash it for us. And as it started, the question is how long it will last for us.
We are hypocrites and a failed attempt at polished aristocratic fine-toothed cattle. Until everything is removed, including one concrete sub-wall and the freaky exit to the Una. Then maybe I will convince myself that we are not really such and such a heathen!
Source: impulsportal.net
