Dozens of activists and citizens of the central city of Zenica gathered on Friday in front of the city council building, protesting against the construction of the hydroelectric power plant 'Janjici' on the Bosna river near the city.

The protest was organised by the ‘Eko-forum Zenica’ association.

Samir Lemes, one of the organisers, said the City Council of Zenica ignored the initiative of citizens to put out of the force its earlier decisions regarding the construction of this power plant, which was backed by the signatures of 1,563 citizens.

In 2013, a preliminary consent of what was then called the Municipal Council of Zenica was reached based on, Lemes noted, falsified statements of heads of the municipality in that area.

“What followed was a series of moves and anytime the citizens raised their voices, whenever they sent their arguments and explanations why the power plant would be harmful first for the environment and them for themselves, they received no response. So our last step was to send an initiative with 1,500 signatures to the City Council asking for its decisions to be annulled. They didn't accept it,” said Lemes.

According to him, the requests to halt the construction of the facility, which should be built by the ‘Elektroprivreda BiH’ state company, will be sent to five addresses.

They also asked for the annulment of the concession agreement, because it has expired, and demanded from the KfW bank to annul its decision to grant a loan for the construction of the hydroelectric power plant.

Miralem Kaknjo, the head of the Janjici municipality, said he would continue the fight against the construction of the power plant in this area, suggesting that the local communities had to be invited to the City Council session to express their views on this project.