Water power: the upper Neretva River, Bosnia-Herzegovina

Rising from the base of the Zelengora mountains, the Neretva is the largest karst river in the Dinaric Alps. It feeds a complex blend of cultures, industries and nature reserves. Winding 225 km past towns and villages in Bosnia Herzegovina it spills out into the Adriatic Sea on the Croatian coast, building a delta of wetlands so rich, they are listed under the Ramsar Convention as internationally important.

Since the 1880s, it has been channelled and drained for agriculture and hydropower production along its course, and drastically altered by land reclamation projects in the 1960s.

Home to countless bird species
However, the lower Neretva, with its wetlands and delta, still supports at least 310 bird species. Waders, terns, gulls, ducks, rails, crakes, warblers and endangered bitterns, ferruginous ducks, Kentish plovers and bearded parrotbills live, rest or spend the winter here; for at least 115 species, this is an important nesting site.

In its upper reaches, the warm coastal Mediterranean climate confronts harsher alpine conditions and the impact sparks a diversity of habitats and species. Clear, cold, pure, spring-drawn waters run in undisturbed rapids and waterfalls, carving steep gorges through this relatively remote and rugged limestone terrain. Many local species are endemic, such as the Neretva soft-mouth trout and the Neretva brook trout.

Indiscriminate and unplanned dam-building
Between Jablanica and Mostar, the river’s energy once chiselled canyons through the limestone plateaus. Now that energy lies captured in dams built to supply hydroelectric power.

The plants are under-utilised, yet the Bosnian government has unveiled plans to build four more hydroelectric power plants and dams upstream from the existing plants. In the complex hydrology of karst landscapes, dams have a widespread impact. The engineering works would degrade the relatively undisturbed upper river.

Grave consequences
The effects would flow downstream all the way to the Ramsar-listed delta wetlands, altering the feeding and breeding cycles of birds dependent on the river's seasonal flows. The power of the river to provide water for irrigation, recreation, domestic supply, downstream hydroelectric generation and other human uses would be severely reduced.

What are the alternatives to dams, and which of these would represent and economic, environmental and social gain? WWF is engaged in researching and assessing these possibilities.