The Drina River Basin (DRB), with its total surface area of just over 19,500 km2, is shared between four WBIF beneficiaries. It covers the northern half of Montenegro and spreads into Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia, while less than 1% of the basin belongs to Albania. With its high flow rate and good water quality, the Drina River Basin scores high on the list of areas with high endowments of natural resources and development opportunities in the region. It has a significant hydropower generation potential (of which 60% is still unused) and many tourist attractions (such as the UNESCO Heritage Site of the Tara Canyon), and it is an abundant source of biodiversity.
The DRB has experienced major floods with the loss of lives in the past decade. The floods in 2010 were particularly harmful in all three principal DRB countries due to inadequate flood preparedness and protection. In parallel with the emergency response, it was decided to start putting in place more robust policies, capacity and infrastructure to help minimise flood damages in a sustainable and cost-effective manner. The absence of cooperation between two predominant sectors in the basin, namely water management and energy, has been identified as a major weakness in the implementation of flood protection and control activities. At the same time, many areas in the basin also experience recurrent seasonal droughts. This affects biodiversity and fisheries, water supply from groundwater (the groundwater levels being affected by the draw-down of hydropower reservoirs in the summer), and agriculture.
WBIF support aimed to respond to these deficiencies and support more effective water resources management in DRB with a special focus on flood and drought mitigation, and hydropower and environmental management, based on good practices and within the framework of integrated water resource management. Technical assistance was mainly focused on the development of a water management model for the Drina River Basin (DRB). The model serves in considering different water management options over a range of development and climate scenarios in the basin.
