WATER RESOURCES OF BOSNIA AND HERCEGOVINA

Abstract

Compared to other European countries, Bosnia and Herzegovina falls into the category of the countries ‘moderatly rich with water’. Bosnia and Herzegovina has significant recourses of high quality drinking, mineral, thermo-mineral and thermal waters that create solid basis for launching various projects in the area of bottled water production, medicine, tourism and energy sector. In hydro-geographical terms, the waters of Bosnia and Herzegovina belong to the Danube basin and the Adriatic Sea basin. From the entire territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina (51.129 km2), some 75,7% of its waters belong to the Danube basin and 24,3 % to the Adriatic basin. One of the major characteristics of hydrogeographic landscape of Bosnia and Herzegovina, - be it a part of the Danube basin or the Adriatic one - is that the waters are international in character, since they strike the B&H state border (by either following it, or going over it). The average annual rainfall in B&H is approx. 1.250 l/m2 which gives the total of 2.030 m3/s. Some 57% of the water form drainage basin originating in Bosnia and Herzegovina (the water drain from territories of B&H excluded) spills beyond the borders of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The estimate says that the resources of underground drinking waters are over 70 m3/s. The recourses of mineral waters are over 200 l/s and over 1000 l/s for thermo-mineral waters.