This article is literature review over the river pollution in Kosova. We included sources from different reports and newspaper articles that are written from 2000 to 2012. Firstly, there is presented some general information about Kosova, its geographical position, effects of the last war (1999). Then, this report is divided in four main basins that Kosova has including sub rivers and for each of them there is enough information talking about the causes of the pollution, the water quality in these rivers and in the end the health effects. We have also included a comparison between Kosova’s water standards and Norway’s water standards (which are considered as one with the highest quality in Europe).

 Introduction

         This article is a literature review regarding the river pollution in Kosova. This country is located in the south-eastern Europe, more particularly in Balkans. Kosova is known for its strategic position, covered with lowland in the middle and surrounded by mountains. Moreover, it has a continental climate accompanied with warm summers and cold winters. Kosovo is landlocked and has a surface area of 10,877 km2 in the center of the Balkan Peninsula. Its neighbor countries are Macedonia (FYROM), Albania, Serbia Proper and Montenegro. It has a diverse terrain and high planes at around 500 meters above sea level, alongside with undulating hills and mountains which can reach the height of over 2000 m. There are a lot of details to exlore in Kosova territory, however in this article we are mainly focused on river pollution, therefore we are going to give our maximum effort on rivers. Kosova has a lot of rivers which can be found in most of the parts of the land. The rivers in Kosova are divided in 4 main basins:  Drini i Bardhe, Ibri, Morava e Binçës and Lepenci (each having a sub-basin of their own). Being located in the center of the Balkans, Kosovo’s rivers flow into 3 different seas which are: the Adriatic, the Aegean and the Black Sea (Aliu, L., Avdullahi, S., Fejza.I., Tmava, A., Behrami, S., Bajraktari, F., & Zogaj, N.,Gazeta Express, GIS, Hammer, OSCE, 2008).

       Rivers in Kosova are mainly used for drinking water, agriculture, industry; however, the level of pollution is being higher and higher each day, which is a very serious concern for the citizens of Kosova. In order to get an idea of the water (river) distribution, in particular the 4 main basins in Kosova, the following map shows details:

 
Source:  Establishing of Monitoring Network on Kosovo Rivers (Drini I Bardhë, Morava E Binçës, Lepenc and Sitnica) [Kosova map] Retrieved Oct. 10, 2012

Historical Background

         Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, specifically Serbia occupied Kosovo for several years. These conflicts resulted in the beginning of a war in 1999 where most of the population was casted away, and a major part of Kosovo was set on fire, or bombed, causing harm to the population’s health as well as the pollution of the environment including the water (Sihna, 2001, 1).  The aerial bombing operation had caused large level environmental harm within the territory of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia overall. NATO forces had targeted major oil refineries, pharmaceutical plants, fertilizer production facilities, and petrochemical plants. According to a research done by professor Sihna, the environmental damage caused by the attacks on these facilities was significant.

         “If there are to be wars, and so long as wars go on, it is certainly better for the warring parties, probably better for mankind at large, that the persons fighting should observe some prohibitions and restraints on how they do it; the idea, to put it at its briefest, of humanity in warfare” (Sihna,2001,1).

        One of the principal environmental concerns highlighted by the media and NGOs during and immediately after the conflict was the possible damage to the Danube river (Aliu, L.  Dreshaj, A., Feka, F., Malija, A., Franciškovic-Bilinski, S., Gashi F., Bilinski, H, OSCE,  Sihna, Kumar Manoj., Suganya, S, S. S). It was concluded that most of the key industrial facilities were targeted during the air strikes. All these industrial facilities are located at the side of the Danube, alongside most important streams such as the Sava, or on smaller streans such as the Lepenica and Morava (Hammer, C.,KEPA, REC, Rexhepi, F., Rugova, A., and Arbneshi, T., Sihna, WWRO). “There were genuine fears that large quantities of hazardous substances could have entered the Danube system, with risk for people in Kosovo, as the other neighbor countries in which those river streams flow, through drinking contaminated water or eating contaminated fish” (Sihna, 2001). The Danube is one of Europe’s most significant passages of biovariety, which means that any unfavorable impact on it, would come along with negative effects on plants, animals and the habitants on which they survive. The Danube Basin covers 817,000 km of 17 central European countries, and the river therefore receives constant and sensitive inputs of nutrients and pollutants from a giant number of industrial, agricultural and municipal sources (Sihna, 2011, 1). The uneasiness over the adverse environmental status led to the organization of the Convention on Cooperation for the Protection and Sustainable Use of the Danube River, 1998 (also known as the Danube River Protection Convention, DRPC). Nevertheless, no evidence on an ecological disaster for the Danube as a result of the air strikes during the Kosovo conflict has been predicted yet. 

Kosova’s Water overview: 4 main basins

“There are four river Basins in Kosova flowing into 3 distinct catchments areas (Black, Aegean and Adriatic sea). There is virtually no water flowing into Kosova expect for the source of the Ibar which is 30km upstream from the boundary” (UN Report, 1983). 

Source:  Establishing of Monitoring Network on Kosovo Rivers (Drini I Bardhë, Morava E Binçës, Lepenc and Sitnica) [Kosova map] Retrieved Oct. 10, 2012

“The major towns in Kosovo are supplied mainly by reservoirs; Gazivoda Reservoir for Mitrovica, Batllava and Grancanka reservoir for Prishtina and Radoniq for Gjakova. Other towns rely on surface water and/or groundwater”(UN Report, 1983).

Source: Database of Hydro-economy for Kosovo, 1983 Belgrade. River basin areas. [chart]. Retrieved October 10,2012, from, http://enrin.grida.no/htmls/kosovo/SoE/.

Water Quality

        Kosova has a lot of problems with rivers pollution, this problem is due to non-existing wastewater treatment and waste disposal. The lowland rivers are the rivers that have the most pollution. But even in the main downstream rivers there is a lot of pollution coming in from the municipalities and different industries that are adding pollution every day to these river streams so that this water source cannot be used any way possible without some kind of treatment.

        Kosova doesn’t have a good water distribution system, there is only about 44% of Kosovo’s population that are connected to a water distribution system, and from them only 8.4% are from rural areas. Usually in villages they rely on other sources of water: springs, wells and surface water.

        Most cases when these sources of water are examined most of the time its poor quality water due to organic contaminants.

        However, the biggest threat is our sewage system; outside of big cities it is almost non-existent. In Kosovo only about 28% of all the homes are connected to a sewage system. makes you think what happens to all the other 72%? Yes it’s just what you think, that sewage is disposed into different downstream rivers, contaminates surfaces and ground water and this usually leads to wells having very poor drinkable water (UN Report, 1983).

        Annual Performance Report for the Water and Waste Companies in Kosovo made by Water and Waste Regulatory Office is another report that shows the state of water in Kosova. It says that water quality is controlled by National Institute of Public Health a sector within the Ministry of Health (WWRO, 2011, 7).

Source: Water and Waste Regulatory Office (WWRO). Annual Performance Report for the Water and Waste Companies in Kosovo, Retrieved Nov 01, 2012.

       The chart above shows the water quality test results for year 2009 and 2010. Even though the data give you the impression that these are good results since they fall above 90%, the internationally accepted norms of pass rates are 99% or more (WWRO, 2011, 7). Having 90% pass rate still is unacceptable since people that drink tap water can get serious illnesses.

Water Use

        You might think of Kosovo having a very small population, and yes that is the case. But our problem is that our population is growing in a very fast pace. The demand for water supplies have multiplies six times more than the last century.  Half of the population is relying on public water systems, while the other half still have to walk to wells and drink contaminated water.

Water Pollution

      The most important foundations of water pollution are the settlements made by individuals, industry and agriculture (Sihna, 2011, 1). Based on the research “Environmental protection in Yugoslavia started to be taken seriously in the 1970s, there is an environmental policy statement, constitutional recognition of the right to a healthy environment, framework environmental legislation and environmental impact assessment legislation.” Ministries of Environment are now existant in central levels in Serbia as well as Montenegro. (Sihna, 2001, 1).

       The diffusion of the river system as well as their flowing, has been affected by the geographical position and terrain topography. The affected water divisions are towards: the Adriatic Sea, Aegean Sea and Black sea (Bytyqi et al, 22). “These factor shave affected Kosova to be in the upper part of rivers that cross the borders, so that it makes Kosova rich with high level domestic water resources i.e. 90% whereas only 10% transit waters.” (Bytyqi et al, 2) The main Kosova Rivers go through the boundary in three positions with Serbia, one point with Macedonia, and teo other points with Albania. Trans-boundary waters contain a variety of different problems, such as: hydrological, political, ecological, technical, scientific, monitoring, socio economic natural and cultural heritage. The Convention the Protection and Use of trans-boundary Watercourses and International Lakes (Helsinki, March 17^th, 1992) implies that the meaning of trans-boundary waters is: when any surface that is filled with waters which are positioned on boundaries cross between two or more states. The human race is conscious that collaboration rather than disagreement are the best choice for mutual administration of trans-boundary waters, common advantage, respect, understanding, benefit, harmony, security and sustainable progress regardless the place of inhabiting alongside that river basin, whether live in the upper or lower part of river basin. 

Water quantity in Kosova

         In Kosova, water confrontations/challenges are difficult and for the most part considered the comparatively limited (narrow) water resources, enhance rapid the necessities, inter-sectorial inconsistencies, massive pollution, floods, drought, scarce management, etc. High density of population (over 200 inhabitants/km2), a quite high focus of mineral resources (metal and nonmetal) and energy resources (coal), etc. takes in diverse environmental issues. Effects in discouraging human physical formations, agricultural BALWOIS 2010 - Ohrid, Republic of Macedonia - 25, 29, May 2010 land deprivation, water pollution and environmental water ecosystems are overall high in Kosova. These progressions are reflected in diverse ways in water quality and quantity of Kosova's border with neighboring countries. According to the Convention on the Trans-boundary Watercourses and International Lakes (Helsinki, 1992) trans-boundary impact means any noteworthy, unfavorable effect on the environment resulting from a change in the conditions of trans-boundary waters which are caused by human activities, the physical origin of which is situated within an region under the control of a Party, within an region under the control of another Party. Although the surface is small in Kosova(10887 km2), water flows are measured with diverse features in conditions of geographical circumstances, hydrologic, water basin, flow, socio-economic processes and pollution. Kosova is evaluated as an area with water stress potential. Different implications such as: hyrdrological and ecological insinuations in trans-boundary waters are likely to appear due to natural processes as well as anthropogenic effects. The table below visualizes the trans-boundary waters with the neighboring countries, respectively the rivers that flow in and out of Kosova, including the internal and external length of the rivers: 

Source: AQUASTAT, FAO (2002) Balkans Chart, Retrieved, November 8, 2012

         A report by the World Bank for Kosova’s resources in the section for water resources shows that there are four main water basins: Drini i Bardhe, Ibri, Lepenci and Morava e Binçës. The distribution of water across the country is not equal and the demand for it is increasing as a result of urban, industrial, and agricultural demand (World Bank, 2012, 33).

         This report also shows that the levels of biological oxygen demand and the low level of dissolved oxygen are unacceptable, therefore classifying all rivers in Kosovo as polluted (World Bank, 21012, 12). The main cause of water pollution is bacteriological, fecal, wastewater contamination caused by the lack of the wastewater treatment plants in Kosova.

Industrial polluters such as KEK, Ferronikeli, Sharrcem, Trepca, Artana, etc. are the  main reason why water is polluted with heavy metals like cadmium and lead.(World Bank, 2012, 34)

        In the table below we can see that except for cadmium, lead and nickel there is no other heavy metals that exceed the annual average environmental quality standards in the four main river basins of Kosova:

Source: World Bank. Kosovo, Cost Assessment of Environmental Degradation, Institutional Review and Public Environmental Expenditure Review. Retrieved Oct. 08, 2012

Rivers and River Basins

        The hydrography of water flows of Kosovo is split into four river basins: the Drini i Bardhe (belonging to Adriatic Sea), Ibri (belonging to Black Sea), Morava e Binçës (belonging to Black Sea) and Lepenci (belonging to Aegean Sea) (Kosovo Enviornmental Protecetion Agency [KEPA], 2010, 31). The longest river in Kosova is Drini I Bardhe river (122 km) and the shortest is Lumëbardhi i Prizrenit (31 km).

Ibri River Basin

This basin consists of 17 monitor stations, three of which belong to the Ibri River (KEPA, 2010,  91). The three stations are located in Kushtove, the outskirts of town and Kelmend. The first one shows that water quality is satisfactory, the second one “shows for poor water quality.” The monitoring results show that there is nothing to worry about since the results are lower than the limit values of category II.
Sub- basins of the Ibri river
Sitnica river – It is considered as the most polluted river in Kosova, since the suspended substances exceed the maximum allowed values (KEPA, 2010, 91).
Graqanka-- this river is constantly polluted due to water pumping of Kishnica and Artana mines (KEPA, 2010, 91). Being near these two mines it has also been shown that there are high values of heavy metals like zinc, nickel and lead. Except for that it is also shown that this river’s water has high values of water energy and sulphate ion. Furthermore, Graqanka runs out of water during summer.
Prishtina – the monitoring station of Prishtina river is located in Bresje, Fushë Kosova  (KEPA, 2010, 91). But this, due to the large amount of urban wastewater discharged in it, cannot even be called a river anymore; rather it is more of a water stream. So it has exceeded quantity of nitrites, suspended materials, COD and CBO5, lack of dissolved oxygen, detergents, etc.

Lepenci and Morava e Binces River Basins

Lepenci River – The water quality of the two sources of this river, in Prevalla and Brezovica mountains, is quite good (KEPA, 2010, 97). This condition continues up to the point where “Silkapor” discharges their waters, these discharges impact negatively the quality of this river’s water.
Nerodime River --The first monitoring station is located in Jezerc mountains (Ferizaj) where water quality is quite high, while the second station shows poor quality water as a result of the discharge of urban and industrial wastewater (KEPA, 2010, 97).
Morava e Binçës River – This river’s monitoring stations start form the Morava e Binçës, and continue to Kllokot, Ugljare and Domorovc (border with Serbia) (KEPA, 2010, 97). Urban and industrial wastewaters of Vitia, Gjilan and Dardana are discharged in this river.
The Curved River --Turbidity, ammonia, and nitrites are the parameters that pollute this river, which includes two separate streams (KEPA, 2010, 97).While at the first monitoring station the quality is high, the quality of water decreases while the river flows in the second monitoring station.
Drini i Bardhe River Basin

The Drini i Bardhe river basin is the biggest one in Kosova. In the rivers that are part of this basin there are 24 monitoring stations that measure the physical-chemical parameters of water flowing in these rivers (KEPA, 2010, 83). These measurements show that the quality of water differs from station to station; the first station shows that water has a good quality, while the second and third stations show that water is polluted significantly from urban wastewater.

On one hand the monitoring results show that water is of a good quality in river springs, while on the other hand on the settlements water is polluted from industrial and urban wastewater discharge (KEPA, 2010, 83). Other river polluters are known to be waste disposal sites, which are mainly found near bridges and some other places near the rivers.

Sub- basins of the Drini i Bardhe river basin

Burimi (Istog) -- This is a river that “begins at a mountain above the city of Istog,” being the cleanest rivers in Kosova compared to the other rivers in Kosova (KEPA, 2010, 83).
Lumëbardhi i Pejës (Bistrica e Pejës) -- A few sources along Rugova Gorge form this river which during summer for two months or so has no water at all (KEPA, 2010, 83). Despite that the three monitoring stations show that it has good water quality in the spring, while after the discharge of urban and industrial wastewater the water quality decreases, and the third monitoring station located near Klina shows poor water quality.
The Klina River -- In this river there are only two monitor stations and both stations show poor water quality (KEPA, 2010, 84).
The Mirusha River -- Formed in the hills above a village called Bllace in Theranda by some small water sources. It is only after it merges with the water source “Uligja e Banjes” that it takes the form of a real river. Having only one monitoring station in Volljak this river is characterized with small muddy water (KEPA, 2010, 84). “The quantity of dissolved oxygen ranges between 12-13 mg / l, conductivity between 500- 600 µS/cm,” therefore this river can be considered to have a medium/high water quality.
Lumëbardhi i Deçanit -- The first monitoring station is located in Decan, and it shows that the water quality is good (KEPA, 2010, 84). The second one is un Kralan a village in Gjakova, is showing that water is a bit opaque and muddy since private companies extract gravel from it.
Ereniku- Where the first station is located there is not much human activity influencing the water quality, thus the water quality shown in the monitored results is very good (KEPA, 2010, 84).  While the second station, located near the bridge “Terzise” in Gjakove, shows that detergents, used by activities such as textile and car washing, are being discharged without any proper treatment.
Lumëbardhi i Prizrenit -- Located at the gorge of Prevalla, the first station shows that the water quality is very good, while the second one, located in Vlashnje, shows poor water quality as a result of the wastewater discharges in the river (KEPA, 2010, 84).

Drini i Bardhe 

          Drini i Bardhë river, which is the longest in Kosova (122 km), is being destroyed form the high exploitation of its bed, done form the private companies (using for private needs) that are taking quartz gravel from it. This river continues being with no protecting from the government (Jeta ne Kosove, 1). Besides damaging the natural beauty of this river, there are recognized many other problems that were caused: problems with ecosystem, damage of agricultural lands, water supply, and flood risks, too. These are all the problems that are being caused from the wild exploitation which is done with the help of heavy technology in order to take quartz and grave which are mostly used in construction (Jeta ne Kosove, 2). The significant factor that influenced this high demand for gravel is also the need for construction after the war. People built houses and also government worked a lot in infrastructure, where most of the times the same gravel was bought with its money. According to an Albanian environmentalist called Avdi Gjonbalaj, the government’s intervention for a better protection for the rivers within a country should be done as soon as possible ( Jeta ne Kosove, 3). For illustration the picture 3 is taken from the Drini i Bardhe:   

Source: Drini I Bardhe (2011) Retrieved Nov. 02, 2012 from http://gazetajnk.com/?cid=1,978,92

        According to Gjonbalaj, Kosova is in the raw of countries considered relatively poor from the water reserves, which contains near 1500m² per person (Jeta ne Kosove, 5). And, the quality of this water is considered to be as the first class one. But, the exploitation has brought the bed of the river near the road, so the risk to even destroy the main street is actually being seen. The most destroyed zone of this river is from Kramovik to Gjonaj village. Since the plants that used from fish are being reduced, the renewal of them is an additional risk caused from this destruction.

Pollution of Heavy Metals in the White Drin River Basin

        Water pollution is a significant problem for the people of Kosova, according to some studyings,“In Kosovo, only 9% of freshwater was used for drinking, and the rest was used in agriculture and industry. The waste from industry and agriculture was the biggest polluter of water” (Dreshaj et al, p.1). One of the main reasons why only 9% of water is used for drinking is because the rest is used in agriculture and waste industry. However agriculture and industry are not the main factors, In major cities of Kosovo, like Pristina, “air samples recorded large amount of dust 200 mg/L. Power plants and vehicular traffic release CO2 and CO, and CH4 from waste landfills” (Knoch, 1994). As a result of global warming, “bee amount decreased 25% globally. Kosovo is also affected by this problem of global warming. In 1985, a beehive gave the performance of 55 kg of honey, and today at 22 kg, which reduced many wine warm and winter extreme” (Dreshaj et al, p.2)

        In this research the department of chemistry and environmental industrial FNS of Tirana University were mainly focused on only one river called, white Drin river basin. Furthermore, in their research they were mainly focused on, “Some physicochemical parameters of water samples, such as pH value, electrical conductivity, alkalinity, hardness as well as concentrations of HCO3- and CO32- were measured, and concentrations of nine elements in water samples were determined by ICP-MS technique” (Dreshaj et al, p.1).

        The research and analysis started on May 20, 2012. Place were selected purposely near factories, traffic and other huge pollutant areas, so they could measure the density of pollution. Moreover, in this research were used sophisticated tools such as, GPS, samples from DM3 water, 12 channels for water temperature etc.

Conclusions and Results of the research

In conclusion, this research article was mainly about on making people aware for the risks that they can get from water pollution.

The conclusions and results are illustrated in tables below.

• White Drin River Basin Characteristics, Tables 1 and 2
• White Drin River Basin Physicochemical parameters of the water samples Table 3
• White Drin River Basin concentrations of nine elements of the water samples
• Table Norwegian water standards table 5

Source: International Journal of Environment and Bioenergy, Pollution of Heavy Metals in the White Drin River Basin [Charts]. Retrieved November 2, 2012

Health issues

            A report by the World Bank for Kosova’s resources in the section for water resources shows what the impacts that water contamination has in health are. Contaminated water can lead to waterborne illnesses and mortality (World Bank, 2012, 36). The most common illness is diarrheal disease, caused by bad hygienic practices and unsafe drinking water. Since most monitoring stations show that water is mostly polluted by bacteriological sources, this diarrhea illness is considered to cause “mortality and morbidity among children under five years of age, and morbidity among the population aged five years and older.”

Conclusion

           With all these points in mind, we can conclude that this paper contains general information about Kosova, its geographical position, and water issues. Mostly, the focus is on river pollution and the root causes of it. This paper talks about the four main basins such as: White Drin, Iber, Morava e Binces and Lepenci. Moreover, it also discusses about the sub-basins and their quality.  After that, there is presented a research paper that compares water quality in Kosova and Norway and proves that the Kosova’s water quality is far away polluted than Norway’s one. So, there are also included some water issues and their effect in the society. The main purpose of this article was to present the real situation of river pollution in Kosova and in the same time make people aware for its consequences (Pllana et al).

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