April 29 (SeeNews) - The government of Bosnia's Federation said it approved a proposal for an amendment which would ban the construction of small hydro power plants on its territory in a bid to protect the rivers, after parliament failed to enforce a similar proposal put forward a year earlier.
The newly proposed law amendment would prohibit the construction of hydro power plants with installed capacity of up to 10 MW, the Federation said in a statement on Thursday.
The proposal excludes small hydro power plants with gravity-based water systems.
The investors and entities which have already received concessions for the construction of small hydro power plants have to complete the request for environmental permit within three years.
The Federation's government in April 2021 adopted a proposal for a law amendment that would enforce the ban, but the entity's parliament failed to pass it.
In 2020, the lower chamber of the Parliament of the Federation, the House of Representatives, adopted a declaration on the protection of rivers which foresees a ban on the construction of small hydro power plants in the entity. The declaration was signed by a group of local and foreign environment organisations.
The Federation is one of the two autonomous entities that form Bosnia and Herzegovina. The other one is the Serb Republic.