Rivers Unite, Dams Divide: The Grassroots Movement to Save Bosnia's Rivers by Nick St.Oegger

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Rivers Unite, Dams Divide: The Grassroots Movement to Save Bosnia's Rivers

nick st.oegger

Dec 3, 2024

I’m excited to start sharing work from my new project, “Rivers Unite, Dams Divide”, which was generously supported by the National Geographic Society.

Many people associate Bosnia & Herzegovina with images from the 1990s civil war, which saw ethnic Serbs, Croats and Bosniaks engaged in brutal conflict, stoked by the spread of nationalism during the breakup of Yugoslavia. While tensions between these groups have flared over the centuries, there have also been many things that they shared, and that united them. One of these, is rivers, which have always played an important role in trade, agricultural cultivation, transport, and cultural heritage from music to literature.

Bosnia is home to some of the last pristine river systems in Europe, hosting massive amounts of biodiversity, much of which has never been properly catalogued. As countries in the Balkans move towards greener forms of energy production, a boom in hydropower development is taking place, seeing over 3000 dams planned across the region, with little regard for the negative environmental or social consequences. Many rivers in Bosnia are slated to be carved up by these dams, while pollution from improper waste management and mining operations also pose a threat.

Faced with this, communities across Bosnia are fighting back. United by their shared connection to rivers and the environment, ordinary citizens are coming together across ethnic lines to protect their rivers and land. I’ve spent the last year and a half travelling around Bosnia, speaking to activists and ordinary citizens about the importance of rivers in their lives, and how this growing environmental movement is providing a sense of hope for a positive change in the country.