Arilje, Serbia - Earlier this week, the Municipal Administration of Arilje confirmed, upon the request of RERI, that no request for a building permit or a request for the extension of location conditions, which ceased to be valid in March this year, was submitted for the last planned small hydroelectric power plant on the Veliki Rzav River. More than 50 kilometres of the river is saved from the construction of small hydropower plants and further degradation of this river, all the way to the Svračkovo Hydropower Plant.

This news comes more than a year after the decision of the Municipal Assembly of Arilje, which stopped the issuance of any documents for the construction of small hydropower plants on the territory of the municipality. Small hydropower plant Visoka was the only facility on Veliki Rzav that was in the procedure prior to this decision and was exempt from the ban issued in March 2020. Therefore, organization RERI, at the initiative of WWF Adria, submitted a request to the Municipal Administration for the annulment of location conditions.

"RERI submitted a request for annulment of location conditions in 2020, considering them illegally issued. After almost 2 years from the previous issuance of location conditions, we received a confirmation from the Municipal Administration that, in the meantime, no request for the issuance of a construction permit was submitted, and by virtue of the law, the location conditions ceased to be valid. Accordingly, in case the investor wants to realize this investment again, it would be necessary to apply for new permits and all approvals of the competent authorities, which precede the issuance of location conditions, and to obtain new location conditions. In connection with our submitted request for annulment of the conditions, the case is before the Administrative Court, considering that the competent ministry did not act upon our request, because it did not respond to it within the legal deadline", RERI explained.

Veliki Rzav is a river of exceptional landscape and biodiversity values. Aware of this, the Institute for Nature Protection of Serbia, at the initiative of the Ecological Association Rzav, in 2018 included the area of Veliki Rzav in the Program for the Protection of Natural Resources. The protection study should be completed by the end of this year, which would enable the river and the surrounding area, based on the results of the study, to be declared a special nature reserve.

The exceptional values of this area are the reason why Veliki Rzav was included in the initiative on durable river protection led by WWF Adria and TNC (The Nature Conservancy), in cooperation with the Environmental Association Rzav. During this year, detailed hydrobiological analyzes were performed, determining the presence of rare and important plant and animal species in the river itself, which further reinforced the need for protection.

"The protection of Veliki Rzav is a direct contribution of the state to the strategies of the European Union, but also to the Green Agenda for the Western Balkans, which emphasizes the need to increase the percentage of protected areas. The importance of preserving rivers and other water resources was also emphasized, both in the context of nature protection and the safety of citizens, and in the fight against climate change. We hope that Veliki Rzav is only the first river in Serbia whose values will be recognized and protected by relevant institutions", concluded WWF Adria, TNC and the Environmental Association Rzav.