The theme of this year’s World Water Day is “making the invisible visible” with a special emphasis on the importance of groundwater. Groundwater is quantitatively the most important freshwater resource as there is 100 times more groundwater than surface water. In fact, it is where we source most of our fresh drinking water.

The small hydropower boom, which has damaged pristine rivers and streams across the Western Balkans, has largely been fueled by generous feed-in tariffs. This briefing highlights the recent progress towards changing the rules on renewable energy support in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro and Serbia.

The German development bank KfW has today confirmed that it has dropped plans to finance the controversial Janjići hydropower plant on the river Bosna in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The plant would entail a 16 m high dam and would flood a picturesque section of the river with a series of rapids upstream from Zenica.

After a fundraising campaign, solar panels are installed on the rooftops of public buildings and streets of Kutë village on the Vjosa in Albania as an alternative to hydropower plants for the benefit of the local community and environment

At the urging of nature conservation organizations, the Standing Committee of the Bern Convention took another look at various projects in the Balkans at its most recent meeting. These include an airport in the middle of the Narta Lagoon in the Vjosa delta in Albania or a series of hydropower plants along the Neretva in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

For the past eight months, river activists from around the world demanded a Vjosa National Park Now. There have been 23 visual actions across 13 countries in the middle of cities, national parks, in front of national monuments or in special natural places.

Today biologist Slameršek was awarded the Wolfgang Staab Nature Conservation Prize 2021 for her outstanding commitment to nature of European value. This prize is awarded annually and is endowed with 20,000 Euros – financed by the Wolfgang Staab Nature Conservation Fund of the Schweisfurth Foundation.

++ The European Investment Bank has financed a series of damaging hydropower projects since 2010, which underline the need to tighten its environmental and social standards, according to a new report published this week by CEE Bankwatch Network. ++

After a decade of efforts to protect the Vjosa River in Albania, this petition will gather the voices of all supporters and demand an action that will make a real change: Proclaiming Vjosa as a National Park. Sign the petition and share it with your friends so that we join our efforts to protect what nature took centuries to create.

Last week, Kosovo's Supreme Court ruled that three KELKOS hydropower plants near the village of Deçan must be shut down pending a final court decision. Moreover, KELAG withdraws complaint against two activists.