Office for Kosovo and Metohija
Government of the Republic of Serbia

Vučić: We will not give up on Gazivode

Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vučić said today, while touring Lake Gazivode, that the state of Serbia cannot and will not give up on something that is of strategic importance for the survival of Serbs in northern Kosovo and Metohija, as is this hydro system.

“For us, Lake Gazivode and the hydropower potential are of great significance. Water resources and capacities are mainly used by Albanians for the Obilić power plant and for the population”, he stressed.

Vučić reminded that the Albanian side was offered many types of arrangements, which would not mean full taking or hijacking Gazivode from “Serbian hands”.

At the same time, he voiced regret that the Priština side did not want to accept such arrangements.

“Our position is that we cannot give up on such an important and strategic resource. We are always ready to supply water to the Albanian side and we didn’t have any problems with that nor will we have any problems in the future”, Vučić stressed.

The Prime Minister pointed out that something that was built by the state of Serbia and guarded and built by its people, cannot be taken away by one signature or because someone figured it belongs to him, without any legal basis.

He indicated that he once said in Brussels, “say what you want, but I will not give up on Gazivode”.

“We didn’t continue these talks after that, and our position has not changed”, Vučić stressed.

“All this time, we have been asking to discuss the issue of property in Brussels, to see what belongs to whom, but they never wanted to discuss property. I saw comments of the Priština side that they consider all of it as the property of, as they say, the Republic of Kosovo, which is absolutely unacceptable for us and we have not agreed to this, nor will we ever”, the Prime Minister said.

He stressed that Belgrade had many constructive proposals that the Priština side did not want to accept.

“In this respect, I realized they are not for joint working and managing, but they want to say this is 100% their resource, that it belongs to the Republic of Kosovo, as we way the so-called Republic of Kosovo. For us, this is impossible and unacceptable”, Vučić said.

The Director of the Public Company “Ibar”, Srđan Vulović, said that 90% of the hydro system’s capacity – Lake Gazivode, 24 km long, and the small compensatory Lake Pridvorica, as well as the power plant, are located in the Municipality of Zubin Potok.

He stressed that last year, they had record production of 103.7 million kilowatt hours, and that water is constantly being supplied to Priština in the amount of five cubic meters per second.

“We are often accused of not supplying water, but it is certain that water from Gazivode has never been denied”, Vulović explained, and the Prime Minister added that Albanians would not even have water if it wasn’t for the delivery from Gazivode.

Vulović explained that drinking water from Gazivode is used by about 600,000 Albanians, and that it is used for cooling the thermal power plant of Obilić A and B.