Gazivode, a Lake of cooperation or conflict

Written for NIN by: Dragisa Mijacic, Director of InTER and Coordinator of the RG NKEU for Chapter 35

The hydro-accumulation and energy facilities of the "Ibar-Lepenac" system are a strategic resource of enormous importance for the social, economic, and energy development of Kosovo. Without the water from Lake Gazivode, created by damming the Ibar River with one of the largest earth dams in Europe, Kosovo has almost no alternative for securing water, which is a necessary resource for all segments of development and life in general.

Geographically, Lake Gazivode is located in the far northwestern part of Kosovo, in Ibarski Kolasin (municipality of Zubin Potok), which is inhabited by Serbs. A smaller part of the lake is located within the municipalities of Tutin and Novi Pazar because the Ibar River flows from Montenegro and through these two municipalities into Kosovo. After Gazivode Lake, the Ibar's course continues eastward to Kosovska Mitrovica, and then north to Raska and Kraljevo. This detailed geographical description is important to understand the strategic significance of the lake and river, as the Ibar, in its short course through Kosovo's municipalities, where Serbs mainly reside, represents the lifeline of Kosovo's overall development.

Dual Control

Officials in Belgrade and Pristina are evidently unaware of the strategic importance of the hydro potential of Lake Gazivode and the Ibar River. Serbian officials mainly make statements that are only useful for creating satirical content on social networks. On the other hand, Kosovo officials, through their actions, provoke radical reactions from Serbs regarding the strategic infrastructure on which everything depends, from drinking water supply, irrigation of agriculture, and technical water for industry, to the most important – water for cooling the turbines of thermal power plants.

The organized transport of Albanians to the shores of Lake Gazivode best illustrates the political folklore of Albin Kurti, who promised jobs and a fight against corruption to his voters, only to result in naked bathers being guarded by heavily armed special police forces. This spectacle and the imagined reality aim to replace the evident lack of results by the Kosovo government in key areas such as the economy, infrastructure development, or foreign policy.

Serbia has the technical ability to stop the flow of water from the Ibar into Lake Gazivode, thereby long-term controlling the socio-economic development and operation of thermal energy facilities in Kosovo. Officials in Belgrade have so far shown restraint in acting in this direction, either out of ignorance, disinterest, or strategic assessment that it is not yet time to open this issue, which will inevitably come to the fore one day.

On the other hand, Kosovo has the ability to control the amount of water in the Ibar downstream from Kosovska Mitrovica, thus affecting the water supply of Raska and Kraljevo. Kosovo will achieve full control through a project funded by a World Bank loan, the implementation of which is ongoing. In Serbia, no one is dealing with the harmful effects that this project could cause on the development of Raska and Kraljevo, as well as Zvecan and Leposavic.

The Gazivode hydrosystem is managed by the public Hydroeconomic Enterprise "Ibar-Lepenac" from Pristina, which is responsible for the functionality of the earth dam, hydroelectric power plant, and Pridvorica sluice, from where a complex canal system starts, transporting water all the way to Pristina, Obilic, and Glogovac. In March 2002, the Serbian government established the Public Enterprise "Ibar," which also oversees the same facilities (dam, hydroelectric plant, sluice, and canal) in the Ibarski Kolasin area, where Serbs effectively exercised power. Due to the strategic importance of these infrastructure facilities, the dual control of the system has not caused significant problems all these years. In practice, Serbia (JP "Ibar") and Kosovo (HP "Ibar-Lepenac") would appoint the same person to manage the facilities in Zubin Potok. After the visit of Kosovo's Minister of Economy Artane Rizvanolli to the Gazivode dam in February, the Serbian government dismissed the director of JP "Ibar," Marko Vulovic, who remained to manage the system on behalf of HP "Ibar-Lepenac," thus bringing the symbiosis between the two systems into question, along with the possibility of direct influence by JP Ibar and the Serbian government on the Gazivode hydrosystem facilities.

The management of the Gazivode hydrosystem was the subject of an agreement signed in Washington in September 2020, where it was agreed that the U.S. Department of Energy would conduct a feasibility study and propose solutions. The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory was engaged for this task and delivered a report in June 2021, proposing solutions almost identical to those from the World Bank study published in 2012.

The practical value of this American study on the given topic is very small, as it mainly deals with the efficiency of the existing system, with only a small part addressing the management of the Ibar River water resources. Regarding the latter, the American study proposed that Serbia and Kosovo consider examples from the U.S.-Canada Columbia River Treaty. This recommendation is questionable for at least three reasons.

A Marginalized Topic

The first reason is political: Serbia does not recognize Kosovo as an independent state but rather as its province, meaning it will not sign an internationally binding agreement with its own administrative unit. The second reason lies in the fact that Kosovo unilaterally seeks to maximize the use of the Ibar River's water resources, either through existing systems (the "Ibar-Lepenac" system) or through new infrastructure projects funded by the aforementioned World Bank loan. By doing so, Kosovo increases its stakes in any potential negotiation process with Serbia, but it also becomes more vulnerable to possible conditions that Serbia might impose. Kosovo is not a member of the United Nations, so Serbia is not obligated to adhere to the UNECE Water Convention, which regulates transboundary watercourses and lakes. Therefore, Serbia has no need to sign any agreement with Kosovo regarding the Ibar River, nor is there anything preventing it from reducing the water flow into the Ibar that fills Lake Gazivode. A lake without water would pose a huge challenge for the development of Pristina and surrounding cities in Kosovo, as there is no adequate alternative water supply. The third reason is that the Ibar River originates in Montenegro, meaning Montenegro also has national interests in regulating the flow of this river, which the American study did not foresee.

In conclusion, Gazivode is much larger than all the casually spoken political clichés and amateurish dives into its unrealistically beautiful light green water. The future relations between Serbia and Kosovo—economically, energetically, environmentally, and politically—will be built on this resource. Politicians in Pristina, as well as the public in Kosovo, do not realize that their future depends on reaching an agreement with Serbia on the management of the Ibar River and the hydrosystem associated with Lake Gazivode. Politicians and the expert public in Serbia are not addressing this topic, and the Serbian public is generally uninterested in serious debate on any issue related to Kosovo. Regardless of the current circumstances, the issue of managing the Ibar River and Lake Gazivode will arise at some point, and it will depend on the wisdom of the politicians whether this will be a path of cooperation or mutual obstruction.