The Balkans are home to Europe’s last wild waterways – unique habitats about which little is known, and home to a number of endangered species. But water isn’t the only thing flowing freely through the region – hundreds of millions of Euros are rolling into the country to prop up thousands of hydropower projects.
In Bosnia & Herzegovina alone, almost 300 dams are built, under construction or planned for the country’s 244 rivers. These projects wreck local ecosystems, putting endangered species and rare habitats under threat.
Nataša Crnkovi?, president of Centru za životnu sredinu/Friends of the Earth Bosnia & Herzegovina, said “These dams mean huge negative impacts for nature. Big hydropower dams flood canyons with huge artificial lakes, while small ones don’t necessarily flood parts of the canyon, but dry them out.”
The grassroots struggle against these dams spans the country.
Nataša continued “There are communities across the country without environmental organisations, but that didn’t stop people being really active citizens and really initiating campaign activities and stopping hydropower projects.”
