Western Balkans: Plans for the construction of several hydropower plants raise concerns over environmental degradation as a lack of public information is criticized by civil society groups
Western Balkans: Plans for the construction of several hydropower plants raise concerns over environmental degradation as a lack of public information is criticized by civil society groups
Buk Bijela dam and the Upper Drina cascade - Bankwatch
Background
The river Drina is formed by the confluence of the Montenegrin rivers Tara and Piva at the border with Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), in an area popular for rafting and angling.
The Buk Bijela hydropower plant - one of 14 dams planned on the upper Drina and its tributaries - is planned on the Drina within BiH, with its reservoir stretching 11 kilometres upstream to the Montenegrin border.
A larger version of Buk Bijela has been disputed since the 1970s due to its impacts on the protected Tara canyon in Montenegro – both a UNESCO World Heritage site and part of the Durmitor National Park.
The current version is being pushed by Elektroprivreda Republike Srpske (ERS), a public utility owned by the Republika Srpska entity. It would still be extremely damaging, especially as the Foča and Paunci hydropower plants are planned further downstream as part of the same complex. A fourth plant, the 44 MW Sutjeska plant, was also planned but has been abandoned.
Legal challenges on environmental permitting
Buk Bijela has repeatedly been challenged by civil society organisations and the Republic of Montenegro, due to Republika Srpska’s attempts to move forward with the project on the basis of an old and inadequate Environmental impact assessment (EIA).
After decisions by UNESCO and the Espoo Convention, and a mediation process led by the Energy Community Secretariat, in 2024 a new EIA process started. However, the screening study shows that Buk Bijela’s impacts will be assessed on their own in the main study, not in combination with the other plants in the Upper Drina complex. And some of the other plants planned in the area will be excluded from the cumulative impact assessment section of the EIA, undermining the whole point.
The Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina entity and civil society organisations have questioned whether a new EIA process should be starting at all, as constitutional issues remain unresolved.
Chinese companies interested
Republika Srpska signed a memorandum on construction of the project with China’s AVIC-ENG in July 2017. But it was reported in 2023 that three other Chinese companies – Dongfang, Sinohydro and China Energy Engineering Corporation had submitted offers to build the project, in a closed procedure without a call for tenders. Later in the year, local media reported that the companies were concerned about the project’s constitutional issues and as of early September 2025, no contracts appear to have been signed.
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the World Bank have both confirmed that they will not finance the project. A 2021 World Bank report found a number of deficiencies in the environmental impact assessment (EIA) for the project and proposed a complete redesign.
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A new environmental impact assessment procedure started in 2024 but looks set to exclude most of the cumulative impacts of planned dams in the area.
A legal dispute is ongoing on whether the Republika Srpska entity needs to obtain state-level consent to issue concessions for the project, while civil society organizations criticize authorities over a lack of information available to the public on the project’s feasibility.
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