As winter comes to Bosnia, so do tons of garbage to its rivers

Dejan Furtula sighed with despair while looking at construction machines working around the clock to remove tons of trash clogging the Drina River near his hometown of Visegrad, in eastern Bosnia.

- BY ELDAR EMRIC

WASTE clogs the Drina River this month in Visegrad, Bosnia, coming from illegal dump sites upstream.

(ARMIN DURGUT Associated Press)

The environmental activist is frustrated because the problem is not new. Every winter, garbage carried by swollen rivers in the region accumulates downstream, eventually piling up by barriers installed by a hydro power plant in Visegrad.

“This is a clear example of the lack of political will and inactivity of all relevant institutions,” Furtula, who runs the Eko Centar environmental group, said. “They meet year after year and make promises, but as we can see these scenes repeat themselves.”