Delta Life 9

25 The Sava river basin includes five countries in the former Yugoslavia. Together, more than twenty-five years after the break-up of the republic, those countries are managing a system for flood risk management. Local expert Mihailo Anđelić and Klaas-Jan van Heeringen from Deltares look back on the emergence of an historic alliance. BY JANNEKE IJMKER / IMAGE ISTOCKPHOTO The Danube is a world-famous river, with its very own waltz and cake. However, fewer people know that a quarter of the water in the Danube comes from the Sava, a river that is 990 kilometres long and that includes Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro and Albania in its catch­ ment area. The river and valley make up a natural, and therefore busy, route for shipping, railways, motor­ ways, and oil and gas pipelines. Protecting eight million inhabi- tants in this hectic environment requires cross-border collaboration. The river is not bordered every- where by dikes and when water levels rise it is vital to open dams at the right time in the right place. But things can go wrong sometimes. In 1964, the rapidly rising river killed seven- teen people. In 2014, the impact was even greater: 79 fatalities and 3.8 billion euros of damage, the largest flood ever. In the 1980s, the first agreements were made with the aim of taming Mother Na- ture by improving river management. But Yugoslavia was going through turbulent times and the project came to a standstill when the republic collapsed in 1991. Resourceful The 76-year-old water specialist Mihailo Anđelić remembers that period well. Until 1986, he worked at the Federal Hydro- meteorological Institute in Yugoslavia, which managed collaboration for the Sava in the fields of hydrology, hydrological forecasts and freshwater use. The work focused on the standardisation of techno­ logies and coordination between the national authorities. Every state had its own Hydrometeoro­ logical Service for operational matters. By coordinating data, at the time without help from the Internet, the hydrologists pulled out all the stops to work together, and solutions seemed imminent. It was a wonderful time: Mihailo Anđelić travelled a lot and so he saw a lot of his 'diverse, multicultural and resourceful country'. But history is an uncontrollable force, and when he returned to Belgrade in 2005, fourteen years after the breakup of the republic, the situation had changed com- pletely. In the meantime, after working at the United Nations on hydrology and water management, he had retired. But with the recent emergence of promising initiatives, he has returned to his old field as a freelance, independent consultant. 'It's not just Yugoslavia that has gone, all the federal institutions went along with it. Even so, there is good news: the five new, independent states are now getting back on their feet after the war and they are trying to work together again in areas where they need each other most. The Sava has emerged as one of the driving forces for collaboration between the different countries.' Bike ride That's no exaggeration. In 2001, the five countries jointly wrote the Sava River Basin Initiative, which describes how the countries want to use, protect Mihailo Anđelić Local expert