Slovenia to move ahead with Mokrice hydropower plant despite impacts on Croatia

Last week, (1) Slovenia’s Minister of the Environment and Spatial Planning, Polona Rifelj, announced the government will consider and adopt’ a decision declaring the controversial Mokrice hydropower plant to be ‘of overriding public interest’ this Thursday, 29 October. 

The Mokrice project has been under development for at least fifteen years and its environmental impact assessments have already had to be repeated twice, following rulings by Slovenian courts. 

Minister Rifelj’s most recent announcement comes after a third environmental impact assessment process, in which a transboundary consultation took place in Croatia earlier this year. In July, the Croatian Ministry for Environmental Protection and Green Transition sent a letter to the Slovenian government, assessing the project as unacceptable. The Ministry emphasised that it does not consent to the project due to risks to underground and surface water in Croatia, downstream from the planned dam.

Mokrice would be the last in a series of dams on the Sava, just a few hundred meters from the Croatian border. The existing dams have already decreased the flow of water and sediment flow towards Croatia, deepening the Sava’s riverbed and lowering groundwater levels near Zagreb (2). This has so far been somewhat mitigated by the river Krka entering the Sava downstream of the lowest dam, Brežice. But Mokrice would add a dam downstream of the Krka’s confluence with the Sava, preventing water flowing freely from the Krka to Croatia and lowering the river Sava even further.

Minister Rifelj’s announcement suggests Slovenia is set to go ahead with the project anyway, in spite of its damaging impacts and opposition from Croatia.

Tibor Mikuška, Croatian Society for Bird and Nature Protection – ‘the Croatian Society for Bird and Nature Protection, Bankwatch and Biom submitted comments earlier this year highlighting major deficiencies in the project’s environmental assessments. Among others, the nature and water impact assessments required by the Habitats and Water Framework Directives were missing.’    

Branka Španiček, CEE Bankwatch Network – ‘The environmental assessment claims that Mokrice would have no negative impacts on Croatia, and that it would help mitigate the water level oscillations and water quality decreased caused by the existing Sava hydropower plants. This is not credible, as the Krka’s current positive influence downstream of Brežice would be blocked by the new dam. Given how low the Sava was this summer, we expect further risks for the river and Zagreb’s water supply if Mokrice is built. 

The Croatian government must fight hard to protect the river Sava and prevent this project.’

Contacts

Pippa Gallop, CEE Bankwatch Network, pippa.gallop@bankwatch.org, +385 99 755 9787

Tibor Mikuška, Croatian Society for Bird and Nature Protection, tibor.kopacki.rit@gmail.com, +385 95 909 87 53

Notes for editors

1. See here for last week’s announcement
2. See here, for example (in Croatian)
3. For more on the project, see here.