Ulog and Upper Neretva hydropower plants
Country: Bosnia and Herzigovina
The upper stretches of the crystal clear river Neretva were accepted as a nominated candidate Emerald Site in 2011, but this has not prevented a series of dams being planned.
In the Republika Srpska Entity, no fewer than eight dams are planned on the Neretva and its tributaries – the Ulog dam promoted by EFT and built by China’s Sinohydro and a series of seven plants planned by Marvel d.o.o.. In the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina another three are planned by the public electricity company Elektroprivreda BiH.
If built, the dams would completely fragment the upper Neretva river and its rich habitats, without even a full understanding of what species are present in this sparsely-inhabited region.
So far, only the plants in Republika Srpska have obtained environmental permits, based on poor quality environmental assessments that did not clearly state which species are present at the sites. Not only has there been no assessment of the plants’ cumulative impacts, but the environmental impact assessments even claimed there would be no impact on the Federation of BiH even though the Ulog plant would be built only just upstream from the Entity border line.
