Pristina Rejects Vucic's Ibar Diversion Plan

Acting Minister of Environment, Spatial Planning and Infrastructure in Pristina Fitore Pacoli responded late on the evening of August 9 to Aleksandar Vucic’s announcement that Serbia could change the course of the Ibar, made by the Serbian president just hours earlier. She called his remarks unacceptable and said water must never be used as a tool of pressure against another side.

Vucic made the announcement in Belgrade, telling reporters during a visit to reconstruction works on the Old Railway Bridge. He cited the treatment of Serbs in northern Kosovo and Metohija by the authorities in Pristina as the reason, and said experts had already been called in.

“We have already called in the experts who deal with this, the construction sector, engineers and others, since they are tormenting our people so much, let’s see, we have various reasons to change the course of the Ibar, so we will see what the Albanians will do and how they will behave,” Vucic said.

On the same question he added that Serbia weighs its own moves by its own interest: “We are a sovereign country, you know, sometimes we have these interests, sometimes those, and we will act accordingly.” In the same appearance he ruled out war as an option. “To those who are the great protectors of our people, ask our people in Kosovo who they see as their only protector, because I see the situation clearly and I deal with it every day. And it is very hard. Is going to war with NATO an option for us right now? I don’t think so,” he said.

Why the Water Issue Surfaced Now

The Ibar is dammed on the territory of Kosovo and Metohija, forming the Gazivode reservoir. The hydropower plant there supplies part of Kosovo with electricity, and the same source feeds the Ibar-Lepenac water system, which supplies the local population. The infrastructure covers households, industry and irrigation alike.

The context predates yesterday’s statement. In the preceding weeks, the authorities in Pristina had been demolishing Serb houses, weekend homes and hospitality venues along the shores of Gazivode, which prompted the European Union in July to demand an immediate halt to the demolitions. Vucic’s announcement came as a response to those actions, not as a standalone infrastructure issue.

Could Works in Serbia Lower the Water Level at Gazivode?

They could, and that is what gives the announcement its weight. The Ibar rises in Montenegro, below Mount Hajla, but it enters Serbia before it reaches the lake. It runs 22 kilometers through the municipality of Tutin, from Spiljani to Strumci. The lake itself begins at Ribarice, while the dam sits in Zubin Potok, so the entire upper stretch of the reservoir lies on Tutin’s territory, as the municipality itself states.

Works on Serbian territory, and Vucic spoke explicitly of his own, would therefore sit upstream of the dam, on the inflow into the lake. The effect would not show up only in the flow through central Serbia further down. It could cut the volume of water that reaches Gazivode at all, and the hydropower plant and the Ibar-Lepenac water system both run from there.

How much water would actually be lost depends on how large a share of the flow would be diverted and at which point. The president named neither the place, nor the volume, nor the timing, so nothing more precise can be said about the scope for now.

What Pristina Is Invoking

Pacoli built her response on international law, not politics. She invoked the Helsinki Convention, under which states are obligated to:

• cooperate in the equitable and reasonable use of transboundary waters
• prevent transboundary harm
• protect water ecosystems

“Statements by Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic about the possibility of intervening in water resources and infrastructure linked to the Ibar-Lepenac system are deeply concerning and unacceptable,” Pacoli said.

“Water resources cannot be used as an instrument of threat, pressure or destabilization against another state,” she said, adding that Kosovo would protect its water resources and critical infrastructure in line with its constitution, its laws and the principles of international law.

Serbia and Montenegro are both parties to the UNECE convention on transboundary watercourses. Kosovo’s status, which Serbia does not recognize and Montenegro does, complicates formal interstate procedures, but it does not change the fact that the Ibar crosses more than one territory.

How Albanian Language Media Reported the Story

Before any official reaction came out of Pristina, newsrooms reporting in Albanian had already carried the statement, and in markedly different tones:

• Koha reported it neutrally, noting that Vucic was considering the change on Serbian territory
• KosovaPress headlined the announcement a mad idea about Ujman
• Sinjali, Gazeta Ekspres and Zeri used the same “mad idea” phrasing
• A2 CNN ran a headline saying Serbia would leave Kosovo without water, while the text called such a move extremely drastic, though it also noted that no decision had been made

At the time that roundup was published, there had been no official reaction from institutions in Pristina. Those came later that same evening, and Pacoli’s was the first.

A legal assessment of any diversion of the Ibar would depend on where the works take place, how much the flow changes and what happens downstream. None of those three details is known for now, so the dispute that opened yesterday afternoon remains, at least until a project appears, a dispute over words.