Serbia to Drastically Increase its Water Needs in Next 15 Years – Nearly EUR 2 Billion for Water Management by 2027

By 2034, an additional 600 million m3 of water for irrigation per year will need to be secured in Serbia, says the Draft Water Management Plan for 2021-2027, published by the Water Management Directorate.

Of this, around 550 million m3 of water per year is expected to be secured from surface waters and around 50 million m3 from ground waters. On top of that, the most common source of irrigation water are surface waters, and the use of ground waters for irrigation is allowed only where there is no other possibility.

In the agricultural sector, the projections show that, by 2034, an additional 1,600 million m3 of water per year should also be secured in order to meet the fish farming needs.

For the purposes of the industry, a considerable increase in the need for water is projected for the upcoming years, says the document and adds that, by 2034, close to 200 million m3 of water a year will need to be secured so as to meet the needs of the industry.

The Water Management Strategy until 2034 estimates that around 20% of the future water needs of the industry will be met through public systems for the supply of drinking water, whereas 80% will be met through own intakes of raw water from surface and ground springs.

– The industries whose production does not require drinking-water quality will use primarily surface waters. Therefore, the most suitable locations for the development of industries that need such water are the coasts of the main rivers such as the Danube and the Sava – emphasizes the draft plan, which is currently up for a public discussion.

The document says that, according to the current research, the estimate is that the total reserves of ground waters in the territory of the Republic of Serbia, without Kosovo and Metohija, amount to around 65-70 m3/s, and close to a half of the total reserves of ground waters is located in central Serbia, whereas the water of the main water-bearing complex is entirely located in the territory of Vojvodina.

– In general, the conclusion is that there are sufficient quantities of ground waters in the Republic of Serbia, but that, locally, there could be water shortages and problems regarding the quantities of ground waters – says the plan.

The document says that, according to the Energy Development Strategy, the overall technically feasible gross hydro-energy potential of Serbia is around 19,500 GWh a year and that the full exploitation of this potential would mean the doubling of the current production of hydro-energy.

Finally, the annual intake of water for public water supply by 2034 will require around 168 million m3 more water per year than in 2016.

The investment plan for the measures within the planning cycle until 2027 is worth around EUR 2 billion. The priority plan envisages two separate project directions for priority investments – 25 priority projects, from “the direction for municipal waste waters”, with total estimated costs of EUR 1.29 billion, and 81 priority projects from “the direction for drinking water” grouped in 11 priority groups (chlorine application, water tanks, water filtering facilities, network, expansion of the springs). The total estimated costs of these projects are EUR 510 million.

In addition to the projects of the Priority Investment Plan, another four projects have been initiated and they pertain to the waste water treatment facilities in Vranje, Krusevac, Raska and Leskovac.

The financing plan also features four action programs for the reduction of the pollution with nitrates from agricultural sources, and the first, four-year plan is worth EUR 110 million.

There are also the annual costs of additional measures and additional administrative and operating costs.

B. P.

Republička direkcija za vode Beograd

Water Management Plan 2021 2027

water management

increase in water needs

agriculture

irrigation

industry

fish farming

surface water sources

ground water sources

hydro power plants

public water supply

waste water treatment

nitrates

agricultural land

investment plan

financing