prijava
BANJA LUKA, February 3 (FENA) - The District Court in Banja Luka ruled in favor of protecting the rivers of Neretva and Igaščica on January 28 this year.
The court thus accepted the lawsuit of the Center for the Environment prepared in cooperation with the Aarhus Center in BiH and annulled the disputed decision of the Ministry of Physical Planning, Construction and Ecology of the RS by which the project holder of the Small Hydro Power Plant "Marvel" d.o.o. Kalinovik, released from the obligation to prepare an environmental impact study for the Hydropower System (HES) "Gornja Neretva" Phase I, which includes the construction of SHPP Grebenac Ušće, SHPP Mjedenik and SHPP Igrašica on the rivers Neretva and Igaščica in the municipality of Gacko.
This ruling means that the Ministry will have to issue a new decision ordering an environmental impact study. It will then be made available to the public and the professional and general public will have the opportunity to comment and suggest.
During this time, the investor can not start construction until he has secured all the necessary permits such as environmental, urban and construction permits, provided that the environmental impact study is approved.
Legal adviser to the Aarhus Center in BiH, Nina Kreševljaković, welcomes the verdict "because it points to all the negative facts of the Ministry's biased actions in such cases, which can be detrimental to the environment, and imposes an obligation to examine the project's impact on nature before obtaining any permits."
“In the hope that we will get more such verdicts, I am sure that we will defend our rivers from the invasion of individuals who are fighting only for profit,” she pointed out.
The Center for the Environment emphasizes in a statement that 'as proved by the court process, the Ministry did not act following the law when it issued the disputed decision because it only states that the submitted documentation was analyzed and opinions were considered and that it has been established that the hydropower system in question will allegedly not have a significant impact on the environment ’.
The upper course of the Neretva River from Ulog to the springs is one of the largest, most important and best-preserved habitats of brown trout Salmo truutta Lennaeus and one of the most important measures to protect and preserve the area is the protection of special habitats.
(FENA) A. B.
