Establishment of the Protection Zones of a “Klokot” Source (Bihać)

The Una River Basin is situated in northwest Bosnia and Herzegovina. It belongs to the Dinaric karst area that is part of the Dinaric Alps, a mountain chain straddling Southeast Europe. The underlying rock is predominantly made up of limestone that has many groundwater aquifers and spring sources. The groundwater body (GWB) of Klokot and Privilica spring sources cover the region of the Pljesevica mountain, and Krbavsko, Korenicko and Homoljsko districts. The whole area is about 685 km², 14 % of the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina with the rest in the Republic of Croatia. The town of Bihac has a number of water extraction points for potable water supply in the area of the GWB. The most significant is the Klokot water source where the average extraction rate is 225 l/s. As the spring GWB is located in an extremely sensitive area, it requires sufficient protection measures in order to preserve a quality of the underground water. The results of water quality tests, however, suggest water quality is continuing to deteriorate with presence of ammonium, oils, detergents, metals, and faecal pollution. This has serious consequences for public health in Bihac.

The WBIF has provided grant resources for a study intended to establish a protection zone to the Klokot water source. The aim of the study is to examine technical, legal, administrative, infrastructure and financial instruments for future protection measures of the Klokot potable water source, in both countries, and contribute to improvement in public health.

The study will prepare a list of priority measures, required in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia for establishing the protection zones, such as:

• Rehabilitation of existing (non)sanitary landfill sites;
• Construction of an adequate sewage system to transport the waste water to the WWTPs located out of the protection zone; and,
• Agriculture and forestry measures. The study will also make an initial assessment on the costs of the identified priority measures.

This intervention will have a strong positive environmental and public health impact in both Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia, with an overall benefit to quality of life. The estimated number of direct beneficiaries in Bosnia and Herzegovina is approximately 61,000 inhabitants in the Bihac Municipality. The second project beneficiary is the Republic of Croatia, and more precisely the legal entity for water management and the local communities.

The study was due for completion in April 2017.