Bosnia’s Federation to Ban Small Hydropower Plants

Lawmakers in the House of Representatives, the lower house of the Federation parliament, voted on Monday for changes to the entity's Law on Electricity to ban the building of any more small hydropower plants because of their negative impact on the environment.

The decision comes after a decade-long struggle between environmental activists and construction companies. Activists argue that the construction of small hydropower plants damages rivers, harms biodiversity and causes problems for local residents.

The amendments to the law, which were backed by 65 out of 67 lawmakers in the House of Representatives, will ban the building of small hydropower plants up to 10 MWh.

"We have one step left in this process, which is voting in the House of Peoples of the Federal parliament, which needs to confirm this law," said Lejla Kusturica, director of ACT Foundation, an NGO which has been leading the campaign against small hydropower plants over the past two years.

In this period there have been two important protests happened on the Kruscica river where local women spent more than 504 days in improvised accommodation to prevent the building of a small hydropower plant.

Another major protest happened on the Neretvica river where locals and activists stopped the work of construction companies on four different occasions.

"This legislation did not just fall from the sky, it is a consequence of defending the rivers with human bodies, and in the end the parliament was forced to respect the will of the people," Kusturica said.

The goal is to have the law ready before the general elections scheduled for October 2022.

In Bosnia and Herzegovina other entity, the Serb-dominated Republika Srpska, small hydropower plants are not...

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