Huge islands of waste are clogging rivers in Balkans

VISEGRAD, Bosnia-Herzegovina — Huge islands of waste are floating on some rivers in the Balkans, causing an environmental emergency and threatening a regional hydropower plant.

Plastic bottles and bags, rusty barrels and other garbage on Tuesday could be seen clogging the Drina River near the eastern Bosnian town of Visegrad. Upstream, the Drina tributaries in Montenegro, Serbia and Bosnia are carrying even more waste after the swollen winter waters surged over the landfills in the area.

The Balkan nations have poor waste management, and tons of garbage routinely end up in rivers. A broken barrier this week caused a massive congestion of garbage on the Drina that has threatened the Visegrad dam.

Officials say that between 6,000 and 8,000 cubic yards of waste are pulled out of the Drina each year near Visegrad.

Although the problem is not new, Serbia, Bosnia and Montenegro have done little to fix it even as they seek to join the European Union.

An environmental activist from the Eco Center group, Dejan Furtula, said the problem with garbage in the Drina also is jeopardizing the local community because once it is taken out, the waste is then dumped on a local landfill which is often on fire and whose toxic liquid flows back into the Drina. Following a devastating war in the 1990s, the Balkans is still lagging far behind the rest of Europe both economically and with regard to environmental protection. Another huge problem has been dangerous air pollution in most regional cities.