Eager to listen to music and watch movies of Bruce Lee and Chuck Norris, several children from Gorazde made a hydroelectric power plant on the Drina River during the 1993 siege to bring electricity to their homes. They had no idea that more than 30 years later, in another war in distant Ukraine, their creativity and that of their fellow citizens would be useful.
Jasmin Ligata, as a 13-year-old in the summer of 1993, along with friends from Gorazde, following the example of older innovators, built a hydroelectric power plant to watch movies and listen to music. Ahead of the anniversary of the siege of this city, he recalled how they succeeded in their endeavor.
“To us, it was interesting, ‘let’s try it,’ and we succeeded. It was better than being without electricity. We improvised. All the children from this neighborhood. There were five or six of us,” Ligata began, reminiscing about memories from over 30 years ago.
“First, we manually generated electricity, using dynamos, and alternators from cars, turning them by hand to produce electricity, listening to music. To entertain ourselves while there was shooting around us. Later, we tried to use the Drina River to make something bigger. We removed engines from these machines with several kilowatts, 220 volts,” Ligata describes.
“We needed over two kilometers of cable to bring that electricity. The problem was the distance between the power plant and the houses, it lost power, so we used converters, and charged batteries. And usually, what required 220 volts was reduced to 12 volts. We had a video player, a television, and everything was on 12 volts,” he says.
Handwork
“We needed timber, so we cut down old pine trees, hewed, made beams, assembled… We didn’t even have screws, so we cut these wires from old poles in half and made screws. There was a lot of everything. There was an older man, who knew about construction work, so he helped us with those beams. We had to do everything by hand, there were no machines, just axes,” Ligata recounts.
To keep it in place on the water, they used cables from power lines that had been destroyed earlier. One of the hydroelectric power plants was large, five to seven meters.
“It wasn’t, of course, as it was before, but at least to somewhat mask the darkness of war. We kids were bored back then, so we gathered in houses and watched movies. Usually, we gathered in basements, and garages because grenades were falling, and it was dangerous to sit in the house. Everything was in some shelters and basements. Those were those pre-war movies – Bruce Lee, Chuck Norris, those old movies that aren’t even watched anymore,” he says.
Sketches sent to Ukraine
Prime Minister of the Bosnian-Podrinje Canton (BPC) Edin Culov, who himself built seven power plants that produced electricity during the siege of Gorazde, recounted how he provided data on the wartime hydroelectric power plants to Ukraine.
“First, we got involved through the Delegation of the European Union (EU) to Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) to send data on those wartime power plants we made in Gorazde. They have large areas with rivers, and the idea from the EU was to send them what we have so that they can start production, and even that some experts from our area would make the first few power plants for them to be able to supply themselves with electricity,” says Culov.
Yaroslav Simonov, Charge d’Affaires of the Ukrainian Embassy, emphasized that it is extremely important to use expertise from BiH in Ukraine.
“The Embassy has mediated to complete this project between the two states. It is extremely important and is progressing. I am sure they will be built in Ukraine,” says Simonov.
Culov further recounts how Juso Velic, an innovator of small hydroelectric power plants from Gorazde, attempted to make a large one that would power the city.
“I made five on the Drina. I made one on a stream in the Rijeka settlement, from a concrete mixer. That power plant was very successful because the water was stable,” Culov says, adding that in 1994, Serbian forces occupied that area, so he couldn’t approach the stream, Detektor writes.
E.Dz.
