Dispute with Pristina over the hydro power plant ‘Gazivode’ is of pure economic nature, because all money that comes from selling electricity goes to Pristina, whereas Zubin Potok municipality is not receiving any money, said director of the power plant Srđan Vulović.
Vulović expects that creation of the Association/Community of Serb municipalities (A/CSM) in Kosovo and Metohija will change the situation, Tanjug reports. Hydro system ‘Ibar’ could earn around two million Euros on a monthly basis, said Vulović, and added that it means around 25-26 million Euros and that all that money, earned from production and selling of electricity, currently goes to Pristina.
Vulović hopes that A/CSM will change such situation, because at the moment five cubic meters of water per second is used for needs of the thermal power plant Obilić and for irrigation, whereas all the rest is used for production of electric energy.
Vulović further said that there is a sort of cooperation with Pristina, but added that it is not actually about the real cooperation since only Pristina benefits from it, whereas plant itself has no benefits at all. “We hope that A/CSM will solve that problem, foremost because in line with the (Brussels) Agreement, community should have competences in the areas of health, education, regional development and spatial planning. We hope that, following the creation of the A/CSM, we will manage to settle this issue, which is of pure economic nature,” said Vulović.
Ninety per cent of capacity of the hydro system ‘Ibar’ is located on the territory of Zubin Potok municipality, that is, two-third of the lake is on the territory of Kosovo, whereas one third is on the territory of Serbia proper.
