The District Court in Bosnia's city of Banja Luka ruled on January 5, 2021, in favour of the Vrhovinska river, which is located in the municipality of Kalinovik, Arhaus Centre said Monday.

The Court upheld the lawsuit filed by the Centre for the Environment, prepared in cooperation with the Aarhus Centre in BiH, and annulled the disputed decision of the Republika Srpska (RS) entity's Ministry of Physical Planning, Construction and Ecology. The Ministry initially said the project holder, Delaso LTD. Teslic did not have to make an Environmental Impact Study for the mini hydroelectric power plant “Hotovlje” on the Vrhovinska river.

As proven by the Court ruling, the Aarhus Centre in BiH reports, the Ministry did not take into account the opinion of the RS Institute of Public Health when issuing the annulled decision, which indicated that the developers paid no special attention to the impact on potential sources of drinking water.

“In the annulled decision, the Ministry did not state the reasons for not respecting the opinion of the RS Institute for the Protection of Cultural, Historical and Natural Heritage, in which it was pointed out that this area is a habitat of the Austropotamobius torrentium Schrank crayfish. The mentioned species is recognized as a species of interest for the European Union, which, in the opinion of the Institute, needs to be preserved through the protection of the area it inhabits. The mentioned opinion also points out that the upper course of the river Neretva with its tributaries is one of the largest and most preserved habitats of the indigenous brown trout Salmo trutta Linnaeus. Therefore, one of the most important measures for the protection and preservation of this area and the increase of the total ichthyopopulation is the protection of special habitats, the so-called fish ovaries,” the Aarhus Centre in BiH said.