Project
"Impact of municipal waste water on River Vrbas" |
Introduction
Industry, which has been traditionally the biggest polluter in B&H,
significantly reduced its influence on rivers, and common opinion is that
nowadays, main polluter of water courses are urban areas. Regarding Vrbas
River, all urban areas discharge waste water directly to the river, without
any kind of treatment. Implementation of such projects is needed to show
real picture and to indicate possible solutions. B&H is searching
for modalities on how to accelerate its further development, how to join
EU integration, and in that context B&H needs support. At the moment
several strategic projects are in place in Bosnia and Herzegovina – Strategy
of Environmental protection in Federation Bosnia and Herzegovina, Strategy
in water sector in FB&H, Republika Srpska is in very final stage of
adoption of RS Spatial Plan, both of entities are working Nature protection
strategies etc. All strategic documents need data from the field, to be
able to understand the situation and to give parameters for further development.
Project "Impact of municipal waste waters on the Vrbas River"
prepared very good data base which might be used not only within the area
of Vrbas catchments area, but also might be seen as a good indicator or
pilot project for other regions within the country.
Methodology applied is simple, but efficient and most
of stakeholders expressed their satisfaction by results, and accepted
recommendations as a guidance for future work.
Water-management institutions, especially on local level are weak, needed
strengthening. Awareness of population regarding water pollution and its
consequences is on low level – such kind of the project might support
local community to take into consideration importance of water resources
for future development and to be encouraged to change its attitude towards
sustainable management of water resources.
New water related legislation was adopted during the project implementation,
which caused certain legal gaps. Namely, new legislation foreseen establishing
of Water Agencies on river basin level, due to time constrain, Agencies
have not been established so far. All stakeholders have needed a time
to adapt themselves to new legal frame, bylaws haven’t been prepared -
all of these points might postpone application of positive impacts of
the project implementation.
Development plans in Bugojno and Banja Luka are under preparation – it
was needed to put additional efforts to convince authorities and other
stakeholders in local communities to plan construction of water treatment
facilities.
Stakeholders have shown interest for analysis on bigger tributaries of
the Vrbas river (rivers Pliva, Vrbanja, Ugar), which was out of the scope
of the project.
Special interest has been shown towards the status of water within artificial
lakes (Lake Jajce and Lake Bocac).
High level of exploitation of hydropower potential, especially in upper
stream, which directly impacts quality of aquatic eco-system and makes
additional pressure on the river.
Contact
person:
Đorđe Stefanović, project manager
REC FO Banjaluka
