Serbia Has 76 Tall Dams and It’s Not Clear Who Runs Them – Study for Solving This Problem Commissioned

The Directorate for Waters of the Republic of Serbia has published the tender for the preparation of a study of the legal, economic, technical and safety aspects of managing tall dams in Serbia, 76 of them (one of which, Selova, is under construction).

According to the project task, managing dams with accumulations in Serbia is insufficiently regulated (unclear legal status regarding the responsibility of running the dam, lack of clear criteria and control and so on), so various problems occur on dams.

Although, it is added, the Water Act proscribes that dams with accumulations are to be given to public water management companies to run, it hasn’t been done so to this day, which leads to the fact that certain dams are not managed properly and that certain dams are not included in the operating plan for flood defense, which can cause considerable problems in downstream areas.

The document further lists the problems and it is pointed out that the Water Act does not clearly proscribe the obligation of regional public utility enterprises regarding the management of dams, or which dams can be considered parts of regional systems.

Also, the Dam Register has not been fully established either, which makes it difficult to overview the situation in this field. Certain bylaws on the maintenance of dams are missing as well, and technical regulations regarding the standards and norms for the management of dams are either obsolete or haven’t even been adopted in the first place.

– Considering that there are numerous uncertainties regarding the legal status of dams, that is, that it is not clear who and based on which documents runs them, that exploitation and water permits have not been issued for many dams, that criteria for dam safety and criteria for accumulation management have not been specified, as well as that the state of the dams is often inadequate and that their improvement will require considerable material funds, it is obvious that solving this problem will be a long-term task – the tender says.

It is pointed out that the main goals of the required study are precisely to create the conditions for resolving the legal-ownership relations and forming a clear strategy of management and maintenance of tall dams with accumulations.

The executor of the job will be obliged to prepare a report on the legal aspects of the management of dams with accumulations, that is, to show the principles based on which the right to the management (use) of the dams would be awarded and based on which the legal persons who are supposed to get (or retain the existing) right to the management (use) of the dam, for all tall dams, would be awarded.

Also, it should prepare a proposal of an economically sustainable model which would regulate the questions of the financing of capital investments and the financing of the operations of the dams.

– Assumptions that, to the end of securing a sustainable financing of the maintenance of the dams and the accumulations, the user of the dam should sell its services to various subjects (users of waters and services): public utility enterprises, users of the irrigation system, owners of hydro power plants, users of the accumulation for various purposes (tourism and recreation, sports fishing, fish farming etc.) should be built into the economic model, and the user of the dam should also get part of the budget funds for flood protection for the regulation of the river flow and the securing of a space in the accumulations for handling flood waves – the documentation says.

Also, the conception of a technical system for managing the safety of the dams, which would also serve as the basis for the future planning of the revitalization of the dams should be defined, and elements for the program of the rehabilitation of the dams should be prepared, based on which their true state would be determined and the necessary activities for bringing them to a functional state would be planned.

The tender worth RSD 24.5 million is open until August 14, and other details (in Serbian) can be found HERE.

B. P.

Republička direkcija za vode Beograd

Directorate for Waters of the Republic of Serbia

Selova dam

tall dams

management of tall dams

study of dam management

Water Act