The Sarajevo water supply and sewerage company, Vodovod i kanalizacija (Vik), and the relevant ministry have not responded to Klix’s inquiry by the time of publication. They asked what they will do if the drought continues, who would be first to run out of water, and why the consumption of car washes and swimming pools is not restricted.
The inquiries were sent on October 22, and Vik has been dropping water pressure during the night from 11 PM to 6 AM. As a result, water flows poorly or is completely absent on higher floors and peripheral parts of the city.
Neither the Government nor the Assembly of Sarajevo Canton has held a single emergency session regarding water supply to date.
On September 2, the Ministry stated that the water supply “is stable and secure, without the introduction of broader reductions” and called on citizens to use water rationally. The very next day, Vik announced reductions in most parts of Sarajevo.
Is There a Plan if the Sources Dry Up?
We asked the Ministry of Communal Economy, Infrastructure, Physical Planning, Construction, and Environmental Protection of Sarajevo Canton whether there is an adopted crisis water supply plan in case the water sources cannot be secured even through reductions on the current scale.
We also asked at what water level all-day reductions are introduced, at what level a state of natural disaster is declared, in what order consumers would be cut off, and who would have priority: hospitals, schools, kindergartens, etc.
The following questions also remained unanswered: how many water tankers the Canton and Vik own, how many residents they could supply daily, and which backup sources could be activated. We don’t know whether the Institute of Public Health has assessed the risk of longer water supply cuts.
In early October, Minister Mladen Pandurević stated for N1 that if October is rainy, Sarajevo could emerge from reductions, but only for three to four months.
Nusret Drešković, Dean of the Faculty of Science at the University of Sarajevo, warned in an interview with Klix.ba last week that the next time there is no snow on Bjelašnica, Sarajevo will be left without water for 24 hours. According to him, this year was saved by snow that lingered until the end of May.
Why Is High Consumption Not Restricted?
We asked Vik who the biggest water consumers are, how much billed water went to the households versus the economy, and how many car washes, swimming pools, hotels, and construction sites are connected to the water supply network in the Canton. We also asked whether Vik technically and legally restricts water to certain consumers during a drought instead of entire neighborhoods.
In a statement on October 27, Vik stated that measures such as restricting watering, filling pools, and washing cars, which are introduced in Munich and other European cities this summer, do not fall under his jurisdiction. The Ministry did not answer whether it is considering them, whether there is a regulation that allows them, and whether car washes are required to use water recycling systems.
They also did not answer the question of how companies in Sarajevo Field and other water protection zones draw water from their own wells.
How Much Water Is Actually Lost
Vik Director Adnan Šerak said in April that 70 percent of water is lost in the network. Vik did not explain whether that percentage refers only to water leaking from the pipes or also to illegal connections and faulty meters. Pandurević previously said that part of the 71 percent loss is unbilled consumption, while physical leakage could be as high as 65 percent.
According to him, out of 1,500 kilometers of water supply network, more than 700 are in very poor condition, and 750 million BAM is necessary for reconstruction. According to the findings of the Audit Office, nearly 8 million BAM and a 48.9 million BAM loan from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) were invested in reducing losses between 2018 and 2023, but the recommendations regarding losses were not implemented.
Vik did not say how many kilometers of pipes were replaced this year and the previous year, how many reported failures remain unresolved, or whether the network is divided into zones to measure how much water enters and how much is billed.
Such division is the first step of all European cities that succeeded in reducing losses. The Ministry did not say whether there is a target for loss reduction that Vik must fulfill.
Reservoirs without a deadline
There is also no response regarding the status of plans for reservoirs on the Bijela and Crna Rivers. Pandurević previously pointed out that the project to bring water from the Crna River is estimated at two billion KM, is under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Economy, and, as far as he knows, has not even started, Klix.ba writes.
