Environment

Investor gives up building HPP in Velebit Nature Park

Photo: Goran Šafarek/WWF

Published

January 11, 2017

Country

Comments

comments icon

0

Share

Published:

January 11, 2017

Country:

Comments:

comments icon

0

Share

The company “Hydroelectric power plants” gave up construction of a small hydropower plant (SHPP) on the river Krupa in Velebit Nature Park, which was welcomed by a number of associations for the protection of nature, according to the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).

“’Hydroelectric power plants’ informed the Ministry of Nature Protection and Energy that they are withdrawing from the process of reviewing the environmental assessment for the construction of a small hydropower plant on the river Krupa. In doing so, the investor de facto withdrew from the project in Velebit Nature Park,” said the WWF in a statement.

Experts from BIOM, Eko Pan, Croatian Society for the Protection of Birds and Nature and the WWF have strongly opposed the use of Krupa river for hydropower purposes since September.

Krupa is the largest tributary of the river Zrmanja and an integral part of the Velebit Nature Park, as well as part of the European ecological network Natura 2000. Construction of the hydro plant would have had a big impact on the ecology and natural features for which the area was placed under Croatian and international protection, the statement said.

“The decision of investor to withdraw from this project is more than welcome, because it is the only right one, for the sake of preserving one of the fundamental natural phenomena for which the Velebit Nature Park was declared, and those are travertine barriers. The management of the park was also against construction, and made that clear to the investor,” said Irma Popović Dujmović, project coordinator at the WWF Adria.

The WWF says that the investor planned to build a hydropower plant of 1.6 MW, a dam 1.5 meters high and 45 meters long, and a 170 meters long pipeline, which would redirect the flow of the river to the turbine. They say that the whole procedure would have affected ​​2.000 square meters of the riverbed, and the vast majority of natural travertine barriers.

The area is so remote that the investor even considered using a helicopter in construction, regardless of the impact of noise, vortices of air and exhaust gases to the nature and wildlife of this protected area, the statement added.

Representatives of different associations for the protection of nature pointed out that such plans canceled very purpose of protected areas, citing the example of the river Mrežnica, where the construction of a small hydro plant caused degradation of the locality.

Comments (0)

Be the first one to comment on this article.

Enter Your Comment

Related Articles

eu european commission critical raw materials

European Commission launches call for investment in green transition, critical raw materials in Western Balkans

28 April 2025 - Private businesses from the EU, the EEA, and the Western Balkans are invited to express interest in investing in the region

Turkey major lithium producer geothermal wells

Turkey aims to become major lithium producer with its geothermal wells

21 April 2025 - Existing geothermal wells alone can enable Turkey to become one of the world's major producers of lithium, JESDER's chief Ufuk Şentürk said

bih sarajevo Register of Air Emissions and the Information System of Air Pollutants home fireplaces

Sarajevo rolls out fully digital system to track air-polluting emissions

18 April 2025 - The capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina has developed a register of air-polluting emissions and an information system to track pollutants.

Serbian Minister Mining Energy Dubravka Djedovic Dedović Handanovi Sara Pavkov environment

Serbian Minister of Mining and Energy Dubravka Đedović Handanović gets third mandate; Sara Pavkov takes over environment

16 April 2025 - Minister of Mining and Energy Dubravka Đedović Handanović started her third term while new Minister of Environmental Protection Sara Pavkov is the cabinet's youngest member