The Drina, a Balkan river known for its stunning beauty, has turned into a massive floating pile of rubbish due to poor weather conditions, exacerbated by long-term mismanagement.

In the Drina, a river that flows through the forested mountains of Bosnia and Herzegovina, tonnes of plastic bottles, rusted barrels, worn-out tyres, household appliances, pieces of wood and other waste have piled up behind a dam.

Much of this waste previously ended up in poorly managed rubbish dumps on the riverbanks or directly into the watercourse that flows through three Balkan countries, accumulating behind the dam as it flowed downstream.

Local environmental activists complain that the Bosnian hydroelectric power station dam is located a few kilometres upstream of the barrage near Višegrad – a town in eastern Bosnia that has unwillingly been turned into a landfill site. Heavy rain and unseasonably warm weather in Bosnia, Serbia and Montenegro have caused many watercourses to overflow, flooding nearby areas and forcing many people to leave their homes.

Dejan Furtula from the environmental protection group Eko Centar Visegrad said that the “huge stream of rubbish” has not stopped, even though the rains and floods have eased.

The Drina River flows for 346 km from the mountainous north-western part of Montenegro through Serbia and Bosnia. Many of its tributaries are known for their emerald-green colour and wonderful scenery.

It is estimated that recently around 10,000 cubic metres of rubbish have accumulated behind the Drina River dam, explains Dejan Furtula. The same amount of waste has been removed from the river in recent years. Rubbish collection takes on average up to six months, and the waste ends up in a local landfill in Višegrad, which, according to D. Furtula, lacks the capacity to process even the town's own waste. “The landfill is always on fire,” he said, calling the conditions there “not only a huge environmental and health hazard, but also a great shame for all of us”.

Decades after the devastating 1990s wars that erupted following the collapse of Yugoslavia, the Balkans are lagging behind the rest of Europe both economically and in terms of environmental protection.

Balkan countries have made little progress in establishing effective, environmentally friendly waste management systems, even though they aspire to become EU member states and have adopted some EU laws and regulations.

Throughout the region, unauthorised rubbish dumps have been set up in mountains and valleys, roads are littered with piles of rubbish, and plastic bags cover the trees. In addition to river pollution, many Western Balkan countries face other environmental problems. One of the most pressing is the extremely high level of air pollution in several of the region's cities. “People need to wake up to tackle such problems,” pointed out Višegrad resident Rados Brekalović (Rados Brekalovic).