Visitors to the otherwise picturesque historic city of Visegrad in eastern Bosnia are first greeted by the sight of a giant floating garbage dump stuck in the deep turquoise waters of the Drina River valley.
Tons of floating garbage, mostly plastic bottles, is a threat to the local tourism-based economy and there are fears it could affect people’s health if it is eventually incinerated.
The Drina flows through Montenegro, Serbia and Bosnia, where the Visegrad Hydro-Power Plant built a temporary barrier from old oil drums in the depths of the valley about 20 years ago, protecting its dam from debris carried by the river. .
“There are about 5,000 cubic meters of different types of garbage here,” Dejan Furtula of Eco Center Visegrad said, pointing to the garbage barrier. “It comes from all sides and unfortunately this scene is repeated every year.”
Furtula says the waste, which sometimes includes household appliances, is brought in from the Drina’s upper tributaries, where rising water levels after heavy rain or snow can cause waste from nearby waste sites to flow into the river. goes.
“In the Drina River you can find literally everything you can think of… dead animals, medical waste, car parts,” Furtula said. “We are in a way like a regional garbage depot because this garbage is produced not by Visegrad citizens but by people living in the cities upstream.”
He said that toxic waste threatens the river’s delicate ecosystem and that citizens and visitors to Visegrad must breathe the air when it is burned.
“This is a huge disaster and shame for all of us, we are showing a bad picture to the world,” Furtula said, adding that ecologists suspect that the river has also been contaminated with heavy metals, and there has been intense flooding this year. Analysis will be done. ,
Owners and staff of hotels and restaurants in Visegrad, known for its Ottoman-era bridge built by Yugoslavian Nobel Literature laureate Ivo Andrić, also complain that piles of garbage are hurting tourism.
“Tourists are the first to see the piles of garbage in the Drina and make negative comments – this affects both tourism and the people living here,” said Dijana Rajic, chief receptionist at the Andrišev Konak Hotel.
The Visegrad hydropower plant could not immediately be reached for comment during the holiday period.
