Guardians of rivers
Situation in Slovenia
According to official data, about half of Slovenia’s rivers are in a poor state. Freshwater fish are among the most endangered of all organisms in Slovenia: in the last half a century their numbers declined around 80 percent. Despite this, there are countless new construction projects and interventions being planned, a lot of them extremely harmful for rivers, their habitats and drinking water supply, according to environmental experts and scientists. Energy and construction lobbyists are often in cahoots with political decision-makers on local and national level, preventing any straightforward public debate regarding the consequences of interventions into rivers. On state level, no debate has yet taken place regarding renaturation of rivers, as envisioned in EU’s Biodiversity Strategy 2030. After record drought of 2022 and devastating floods of 2023 the interest of public and media in the fate of our inland waters has been steadily increasing. But most citizens are still not fully aware that they can become active themselves in the field of rivers protection. Another problem arises when people in their local environments start to establish civil society initiatives. Discrimination usually takes place in such a way that local authorities and state institutions prevent representatives of civil society from participating in the decision-making process on new interventions into rivers, so the activists have to turn to the courts. Although some environmental campaigns have been successful, a lot of the initiatives face problems such as isolation, unrecognizability, small membership, lack of legal knowledge and professional support and inexperience in the field of advocacy.
Our work takes place throughout Slovenia and is multi-faceted in terms of promoting advocacy through various information channels, public events, and innovative approaches. At the same time, we support civil society initiatives, working together with environmentalists and legal experts, sometimes also with local authorities.
Our initial idea was to travel around Slovenia, learn about the problems of our rivers and establish contacts with local civil society groups. From this idea arose a vision of connecting these groups for the benefit of mutual cooperation, encouragement, exchange of experience and information, and this vision has grown into the strategy of establishing a national network for the protection of our inland waters and drinking water.
During the implementation of the project, we came to the realization that efforts to protect rivers and drinking water as fundamental human rights unite people beyond the divisions created by daily politics. Empowerment and connecting civil society initiatives are not only a condition for effective advocacy in environmental protection but also a prerequisite for building a better society with greater participation and engagement of people in decisions that affect their lives, health, and the environment.
In April Guardians of Rivers team visited several activists for rivers in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Kosovo and Albania who, in cooperation with local residents, jointly prevented the construction of dozens of small hydropower plants in the region. We have met representatives of various civic initiatives united in the “Coalition for the Protection of the Rivers of Bosnia and Herzegovina”, in Serbia with the organization “Studenac Nova Varoš”, in Kosovo with nature conservationists who oppose hydropower plants on their rivers, and in Albania with activists who fight against the dam Skavica, which would flood the entire region and drive tens of thousands of people from their homes. Corrupt local politicians sell Balkan nature to foreign corporations, which make construction interventions that would never be allowed in their home countries.
Along the way, we have also noticed great demographic devastation, as many young people have moved away. Some areas are extremely vulnerable when foreign companies or domestic investors come there, who, with the support of corrupt politicians, want to take over water resources and put
even the smallest rivers into pipes and build small hydroelectric power plants to make more profit. In many places they have unfortunately, succeeded. Destructive interventions in rivers, which are literally killing them, often take place without obtaining the appropriate permits and without considering opinion of the local community.
On the other hand, more and more local groups, initiatives, societies and residents are active in the Balkans, fighting for the protection of rivers on local, regional, national and international levels. Wherever people have resisted destructive interventions with their own bodies, campaigns and legal means, they have achieved victories and are marching towards new ones together (among them the Bosnian initiatives “Let me flow”, which protected the river Neretvica from 15 small hydroelectric plants, and “The Brave Women of Krušica”, who protested on the bridge for 500 days to prevent the destruction of the local river).
The Guardians of the Rivers project will join efforts to raise awareness and connect with the exhibition's journey through the Balkans and it’s expansion, so that it will eventually include guardians from the entire region.