World Bank Grants for the Project of Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina for the Preservation of Neretva and Trebišnjica

Representatives of the governments of Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina today signed agreements with the heads of the World Bank offices in Zagreb and Sarajevo for grants from the Global Environment Facility (GEF) worth a total of 8 million dollars, intended to support the implementation of the “Neretva and Trebišnjica Management Project”.

In addition to the grant agreements, project contracts were signed between representatives of the World Bank and the governments of Croatia, the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the Republic of Srpska, as well as a Memorandum of Understanding between Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. The value of the World Bank grant for Bosnia and Herzegovina amounts to 6 million dollars, while for Croatia it is 2 million dollars. According to Finance Minister Ivan Šuker, in accordance with the agreements with the World Bank, Croatia will co-finance the project with an additional 1.07 million dollars, and Bosnia and Herzegovina with 4.38 million dollars.

The total value of the works necessary for the implementation of the project is estimated at around 20 million dollars, emphasized the Minister of Finance and Treasury of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Dragan Vrankić, adding that each country will finance its part of the works in appropriate proportions. The project is expected to result in an efficient and impartial distribution of water among users in the Neretva and Trebišnjica basins at a cross-border level, as well as the preservation and enhancement of ecological systems and biodiversity in both basins.

Among other things, the project includes the development of capacity for water resource management and information exchange on the basin management plan, the construction of measuring stations that will serve to measure and monitor the water quality of the two rivers, addressing the problem of saline water inflow in the Neretva valley in Croatia, and more. Expressing hope that the implementation of this project will permanently resolve the pollution problem of the two rivers from local municipal and industrial sources, the head of the World Bank office in Sarajevo, Marco Mantovanelli, emphasized that this is not a World Bank project. The World Bank only supports this project, but the project itself arose from the cooperation and initiative of Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as their action plans for water resource management, said Mantovanelli. (H)