In June, The House of Representatives of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina passed a decision to completely ban the construction of small hydropower plants. The Federal Government now has three months for analysis of relevant legislation and to propose amendments to enable effective implementation of this decision. The decision was hailed by environmental non-governmental organizations who fought to ban SHPP construction for years.
The Federal Ministry of Environment and Tourism gave a positive opinion on the Draft Law on the complete ban of planning, construction and commissioning of small and medium hydropower plants in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH), which was drafted by environmental non-governmental organizations.
The Ministry submitted a positive opinion to the Prime Minister’s Office and expressed hope that all other competent institutions will comment on the law and submit their proposals, if any, in order to stop the construction of small hydropower plants.
The statement from the Ministry said that it is important to adopt the draft law proposed by non-governmental organizations because it would respect the conclusion of FBiH Parliament requesting a ban on the construction of small and medium hydropower plants. Since the original competence of this ministry is environmental protection, it found that the draft law is particularly good and all competent institutions should support it, in order to be in the parliamentary procedure as soon as possible.
