Let the sunshine in, say civil society groups
Author: Igor Vejnović, Hydropower Coordinator, CEE Bankwatch Network Eight civil society organisations last week submitted proposals for a revamp of Serbia’s renewables support scheme to the Ministry of Energy and Mining. All across Europe, renewables incentive schemes have been transformed in recent years to take account of the growing costs of feed-in tariffs for end […]
Protests against hydropower planned across Balkans from July 6-16
Environmental activists and civil society organizations (CSOs) from across the Balkans are organizing protests under the slogan “Our rivers – No DAMage!” in July over hydropower projects threatening to leave local populations without homes, arable lands, drinking water, and irrigation supply, or the landscape they have enjoyed for generations. The protests against hydropower plants (HPPs) […]
Countries with Europe’s best quality bathing water revealed
Just ahead of summer vacations, the European Commission has released a report on the quality of bathing water in EU member states plus Albania and Switzerland. The latest annual European bathing water quality report is based on the 2018 data, but the results give a good indication of where the best quality bathing waters are […]
World Water Day: From coffee to coal, many products have alternatives – water does not
Of 7.2 billion people in the world, 2.1 billion live without safe water at home, according to the UN data. Today is World Water Day, and this year’s theme is ‘Leaving no one behind’, in line with the central promise of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development: as sustainable development progresses, everyone must benefit. In […]
European Water Association looking for webinar speakers
The European Water Association (EWA) is launching a series of webinars and looking for webinar speakers. Some of the webinars will be for members only as a service to the members, and some of the webinars will be open to non-members for a fee, EWA said in a press release. The exact frequency of the […]
Water is and should remain a public good – citizens’ initiatives
The privatization of drinking water sources in Serbia – and the region – has proceeded fairly unnoticed and under the radar. By contrast, the construction of small hydropower plants (SHPPs), especially in protected areas, has caused a revolt in parts of Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Albania, while the response of Serbian citizens to the […]
BSTDB initiates first energy efficiency facility in Romania
The Black Sea Trade and Development Bank (BSTDB) has secured a EUR 7 million revolving facility for Garanti Consumer Finance, a Romanian non-banking financial institution, to finance energy efficiency, renewable energy, and water-saving solutions in the Romanian residential housing sector, the BSTDB said in a press release. The BSTDB’s first facility of the kind is […]
River flow regulation, sedimentation, renewable energy investment core of new project in the Drina River Basin
Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Serbia have agreed to jointly investigate options for formalizing river flow regulation, occurrence of erosion and sedimentation, as well as ways to promote investment into renewable energy in the framework of a new project funded by the Italian Ministry for the Environment, Land and Sea and implemented by United Nations […]