A series of dams, diversion tunnels, hydropower plants and channels will completely change the natural hydrology of eastern Herzegovina and have unpredictable impacts on wetlands, rivers and underground karst.

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Key facts
Project promoter: Hidroelektrana Dabar d.o.o., a subsidiary of the state-owned power utility Elektroprivreda Republike Srpske
Installed capacity: Dabar 160 MW; Nevesinje 60 MW; Bileća 32 MW.
Lead contractor: Dabar – China Energy Gezhouba Group; some tunnels – Integral Inženjering PLC
Financing: EUR 180 million loan from the China Exim Bank
River: Zalomka and smaller rivers in four karst fields (poljes), with impacts on Neretva, Buna, Bunica, Bregava
Protected areas: Numerous, including Hutovo Blato Ramsar site, Delta Neretve Natura 2000 site, Buna and Bunica springs, at least four Emerald sites (Gatačko, Nevesinjsko, Dabarsko and Fatničko karst fields), at least three Key Biodiversity Areas (KBAs).
Key issues
– The Lower Horizons scheme built in the second part of the 20 century has already had a devastating impact on biodiversity in Eastern Herzegovina. The Upper Horizons, if built, would further its destruction.
– Upper Horizons would be built in Republika Srpska but will cause impact on key karst rivers in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia.
– The Hutovo Blato Ramsar Site would be left with even less water than now (as it is fed by the Bregava river), leading to its complete destruction.
– Transboundary impacts on Croatia – the Neretva delta will be left with less water leading to salinisation.
– The Gatačko, Nevesinjsko, Dabarsko and Fatničko karst fields, all of them Emerald sites, will be converted from wetlands with a natural hydrological regime, with rich flora and fauna, to artificially drained land and reservoirs.
– People from some villages (Solakovići, Kosovača, etc.) would need to be displaced.
– Hundreds of hectares of agricultural land and forests would be flooded under reservoirs.
Background
The 160 MW Dabar hydropower plant is part of the massive Upper Horizons (Gornji Horizonti) scheme, first conceived in the middle of the 20th century. Upper Horizons consists of three hydropower plants (Dabar, Bileća and Nevesinje planned), two reservoirs with multiple dams (planned), 4 diversion tunnels (2 built, 1 under construction, 1 planned), 1 pumping station (planned to divert water from Gatačko polje), 4 karst fields drained by large channels (Fatničko built, Dabarsko and Nevesinjsko to start construction in 2023, Gatačko planned). The longest tunnel, Nevesinjsko field – Dabar hydropower plant, is being built by the company Integral Inženjering PLC, owned by the controversial businessman Slobodan Stanković, a close associate of the Republika Srpska president Milorad Dodik and placed on the US sanctions list.
Impacts in Republika Srpska, Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia
The potential impacts from the project are hotly debated and may be extremely far-reaching. It is likely they are not all understood due to the complexity of the karst underground. First, the unique karst fields (poljes) in Republika Srpska would be completely destroyed. Underground karst rivers, caves and springs will be left with almost no water even before their biodiversity is properly studied. Three endemic fish species (Telestes dabar, Telestes metohiensis, Delminichthys ghetaldii) would probably be driven to extinction.
Second, the project would also involve closing or drying several sinkholes, which may endanger the water flow to the iconic Buna, Bunica and Bregava rivers that are of crucial importance to towns in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina like Blagaj and Stolac as well as being home to protected species.More than 85 per cent of the water of these rivers would be diverted towards the Bileća artificial reservoir, and most of it will not be returned to the Neretva basin. The Biograd sinkhole in the Nevesinjsko karst field, one of the biggest in Europe, will be among the impacted. The already seriously impacted Hutovo blato wetland, which is of international importance according to the Ramsar convention, would receive even less water if all parts of Upper Horizons are built.
Third, the project would decrease the flow of the river Neretva, whose delta in Croatia is already suffering from salination. As an important wetland and agricultural area, this in itself is a massive impact.
Flawed EIA procedure
An environmental impact assessment (EIA) was carried out for the Dabar hydropower plant in 2012, but the Upper Horizons scheme as a whole has never been subject to either a strategic environmental assessment or an EIA, nor will the Dabar EIA have taken into account the increasingly erratic rainfall and hydropower production that have characterised the last few years.
The project has faced strong public opposition in both the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH) and Croatia, and the FBiH government launched a court case against the EIA approval in 2012. Since the relevant court was in Banja Luka, it unsurprisingly ruled in favour of the Republika Srpska authorities.
Although some tunnels have already been built, for some time the project did not seem to be moving forward, and the strong public outcry from earlier years seemed to abate. However, the announcement in January 2022 that a financing contract had been signed with the China Exim Bank saw renewed controversy. Given the likely seriousness of the impacts of the Upper Horizons complex, public opposition to the project – and corresponding political opposition – in FBiH and Croatia is expected to increase rather than decrease in the future.
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